Wizard's Law
by sakurademonalchemist
Summary: Olivia Benson never expected that her mother's family would ever contact her. Much less to take in a teenager who had suffered trauma in his old school! Now she's raising her cousin, a boy who wouldn't look out of place as one of the many people she had to deal with at work. The only catch? Her cousin is a wizard! Can Harry and Olivia learn to accept each other?
1. Chapter 1

**_Law and Order: SVU and HP. I'll try to keep the less pleasant aspects of SVU out of the story, as this is mostly Harry living with Olivia Benson._**

* * *

It was in June when Olivia got a rather unusual call from England. Apparently some of her mother's cousins had recently learned that someone was still alive on their side of the family.

From what she understood, Petunia Dursely (her cousin from England) had researched her before calling. When she found out that her cousin specialized in traumatized teens, she went looking for Olivia's number.

Olivia Benson worked for the Special Victims Unit in New York, and was a Detective with a very good partner. His name was Elliot Stabler.

"Okay, so why exactly did you call me?"

" _My nephew recently came back from his private school rather traumatized, and I can't exactly drag him to a psychologist. My husband would never pay for it. I don't know what to do with him, and frankly I think a change of scenery would do more than staying here."_

"I can't exactly afford to keep a teenager," said Olivia.

" _There's a stipend from his father's family that should pay for most living expenses. No doubt he'd be able to find a branch to withdraw any cash you might need. His father was pretty well off, and from what my sister said it was old money."  
_

While that solved one problem, Olivia didn't think she could handle having a problem teenager. Her job was stressful enough.

"Look, send him here for a week. If he can handle living here then I'll see what I can do. If not I'll send him back," said Olivia. A trial period was a perfectly reasonable compromise, and if nothing else she could set Dr. Huang on her cousin to see if there was anything she could do.

Besides, she was interested to meet a cousin who actually wanted to talk to her. Her mother's family wanted nothing to do with her because of _how_ her mother became pregnant.

* * *

Harry honestly didn't know how to feel about meeting one of his American cousins. He didn't even know he _had_ cousins in America until Petunia found an old address in a book for a Serena Benson.

All he knew of Olivia was that she was a cop in a very specific branch in New York, she lived alone, and was never married.

At this point he was just glad he didn't have to spend yet another summer stuck in Privet Drive with people he couldn't stand. Particularly since an ill-timed kick by Dudley caused the air conditioning to go out, and the repair man was backed up for a full week.

He still had nightmares of Cedric's death.

He walked through the mundane part of the air port, having taken an long, tedious plane ride that he thankfully included an in-flight meal that was actually decent.

He looked around, trying to find anyone matching the picture of his cousin. Instead he found a rather strict looking guy with a military hair cut with a sign.

"You Olivia's cousin?"

"If the woman you're referring to is Olivia Benson, then yes. At least as far as I'm aware anyway. Who're you?"

"Elliot Stabler, her partner. Liv had to go to an emergency court appearance so she asked me to pick you up."

"...Can I see some ID? No offense but I find it's better to indulge in a little healthy paranoia when you're in an unfamiliar country," asked Harry.

Elliot showed him his badge and driver's license, which was good enough for him.

Now under normal circumstances, Harry would have to deal with customs to retrieve his only friend in the hell that was Privet Drive. But he had an epiphany, and told Hedwig to wait for a week before heading there, in the event things didn't work out. She would have hated the cramped plane, and traveling without her along was much cheaper.

Thanks to the annoyance that was jet lag, he was woken up once they reached the precinct and given a visitor's pass since Olivia had to pick up a few things before she took him back to her apartment. Fortunately he didn't mind sleeping on the couch until her spare room was cleaned out.

He ended up borrowing a spare bed that some of the cops used when they had a late night and it would be pointless to go home when you would have to make an early morning the next day. He was woken up a second time by his cousin.

"Jet lag?"

"That and a few other things," he said yawning. "What's was the emergency court thing about?"

"One of the Defense attorneys tried to pull a fast one by getting the case rescheduled at an earlier time, and I was one of the witnesses. Do you want to stay here until my shift is over, or do you want me to drop you off at my apartment so you can get settled in?"

"...Just get me some caffeine and I should be able to stay awake until lunch."

"It's 2 in the afternoon."

"Dinner then. No point in sleeping when I'll just end up awake in the wee hours of the morning anyway," replied Harry.

Armed with a cup of paint-thinner grade coffee Harry managed to stay awake until dinner. He spent most of his time at the precinct learning what exactly it was Olivia did for a living. Well, that and finding out what kind of baked goods the cops preferred. Some said muffins, others said cookies.

When Olivia finished her shift, they went to a restaurant that catered to off-duty cops, and he was treated to a cheap, but rather tasty meal.

After nearly fifteen years of the same boring British food, American cuisine was the best he'd had. Especially since the two places where he could get an abundance of food usually meant he was eating overly fatty ones. As much as he loved Mrs. Weasley's cooking, she really needed to learn some new recipes.

By the time he crashed onto the couch (putting his bags somewhere he could put them away later) he was exhausted.

One week passed by far too quickly. Olivia quickly learned that Petunia had good reason to worry about her nephew...he had nightmares, but he apparently learned to keep quiet even while sleeping.

By the end of the week Olivia asked him whether or not he wanted to stay in America instead of going home.

"I like it here. People aren't constantly putting me on a pedestal, and most people ignore me. Not to mention the fact you actually treat me like I have a brain, and Aunt Petunia would be making me do all the chores around the house so she wouldn't have to do them herself," Harry said honestly.

If he had to chose between the Dursleys, the Weasleys or living with Olivia...well, the honest answer was that he preferred New York. Here no one batted an eye if he was around, and Olivia actually _listened_ to him. Even if the room was small, and the fridge wasn't fully stocked, it was infinitely better than what he had to deal with before now.

About the only negative he could see with living with her was that she made him visit the department's on-call psychiatrist once a week. Dr. Huang was friendly enough, but he didn't see himself divulging anything big to this guy.

Olivia was slightly unhappy with the fact that all he owned were in the two large duffel bags he had brought with him as carry-ons. At least he did have a pet, but apparently it had to be shipped to New York.

At least that was what she assumed. Instead she woke up one morning to find a large white owl sitting on the windowsill tapping impatiently.

Harry woke up to the smell of coffee, and when he saw the owl he opened the window despite her misgivings about a large bird. Imagine her shock when she realized _this_ was Harry's pet!

"You never said you had a pet bird."

"Most people think messenger pigeons are outdated. How would you have reacted to the fact I have a messenger _owl_?" he asked dryly. Olivia conceded his point. She wouldn't have believed it without seeing it first, and that owl was clearly trained because it sat regally on the back of the chair without even reacting to her presence.

"Does she have her shots?"

"I can take her to have her checked out later. As far as I know she's up-to-date, but I'd better make sure she doesn't catch anything here. She is a snowy owl after all."

Harry came back later that day with official papers, one of which he handed to Olivia stating Hedwig had all her shots and had cleared customs. She was a cop, after all.

It took him a few days to find a school he liked...and to arrange for magical tutors since he didn't want to give up after four years. He was officially classed as a home-school wizard, though he had yet to tell Olivia about his magic.

He was still somewhat afraid she might reject him as completely as Petunia had.

* * *

Olivia double checked her account. Then she did it again because there was something there that shouldn't be.

"Hey Liv, what's wrong?" asked Elliot.

"My account says there's two thousand dollars more than I remember in it."

"Bank error?"

"I don't know. I certainly would have remembered putting that much in," she said confused. She called the bank...and they told her it wasn't an error. She had no idea which bank Gringotts was, because she had never heard of it before.

When she went home and mentioned it to Harry, he didn't seem surprised in the least.

"Oh that. I completely forgot about it to be honest."

"Forgot about what?"

"I went to the American branch of my bank and when I heard about the stipend I gave the okay to double it since I wasn't sure which school I could go to."

Olivia stared.

"Wait. Gringotts is your bank?"

"Apparently my parents set it up so that whoever took me in got a stipend once a month so they could afford an extra kid if they couldn't already. I can also get money from my trust fund," said Harry.

Olivia stared.

"She mentioned old money, but she never said how old."

"From what I saw, my dad was a lord of some kind and his parents made a lot of investments. I'm still trying to make sense of the numbers," admitted Harry.

"I'll help you balance your account books later," said Olivia. With one mystery solved, she made a note to take Harry for some much overdue shopping for essentials. And possibly look into getting a house rather than her apartment, because she already had to deal with more than one complaint about his pet owl, and it was pretty clear he was attached to it.

Besides, Hedwig was very well behaved and didn't suffer common pests.

"So when's your birthday?" asked Olivia.

"Last day of the month," said Harry distractedly.

Olivia blinked.

"Any requests on where you want to eat out? Or maybe a movie?"

"Not really. I don't celebrate my birthday that often," shrugged Harry.

Not much reason to celebrate, considering the Dursleys could care less about him and always preferred to lavish extravagant parties and gifts to their own son. The closest he had gotten to celebrating his birthday was the yearly gifts he got from his friends. Unfortunately he had no way to really contact them considering the post owls he rented from the alley kept returning his letters.

He even tried calling Hermione's parents, but apparently she had left her cell phone behind by accident and they had no idea where she was. Just that she was with teachers in a safe location.

Which meant getting in contact was going to be impossible, since he wasn't going to risk Hedwig's health. The owner of the magical vet had told him it wasn't a good idea to have Hedwig make the trip between England and America more than once a month, if that. And since he couldn't send a message through another owl anyway, he wasn't going to bother. They would have to find another way to contact him.

Mostly because Petunia had burned the number to call Olivia and had erased it from the caller ID.

Olivia made a note of places to take her cousin to and to ask Huang if there was something she could get him.

Huang recommended getting Harry a bike, if only because he was used to balancing while riding. Apparently he was part of a sport that was similar to polo in his old school.

The problem was that Olivia lived up on the third floor of an apartment complex. It would be pretty difficult to carry an adult sized bike up and down three flights of stairs, and most of her neighbors would be pretty annoyed having to share room with such a big bike up and down the elevator.

Which meant she might need to consider getting a small house later on.

Finally she settled on the latest video games, some fantasy books (she noticed Harry had a habit of reading things with magical themes), and a newer TV so he could watch whatever he wanted within reason.

If she moved to something a little closer to the ground she could get him a bike, but for now it was too much of a hassle.

And as a further surprise (and in an effort to get him to socialize with other teenagers) she had Elliot set up a small surprise party at his house. This would also double as an unofficial 'welcome to the States' party, considering they never had one.

Well...that and Elliot was of the firm opinion his daughter could use some positive influences, and he generally included Harry into that category.

Harry did his homework right after getting home, cooked, cleaned, and didn't get into trouble. He also kept himself clean and usually was a very good kid.

When it came to teenagers, Olivia had really lucked out with her cousin. About the only real issue was that he rarely opened up and knew far too much about first aid. Olivia had found out Harry had sprained his arm (this happened during the first week of school), but instead of going to the nurse or telling her, he had created a makeshift splint that he hid with his body until he got home and never made a peep about the fact his arm was hurting.

Elliot had seen the pictures. Harry knew exactly how to bind the arm in a way that kept it stationary while still giving him plenty of mobility. And he knew for a _fact_ Harry had never had any military training on battlefield healing.

Harry walked into the door after Olivia, and was caught off guard by the party inside. It was lucky he didn't have his wand on him, or his instincts would have left someone hexed and him having some rather awkward explaining to do.

For the most part, the party was a success and Harry walked away with several new video games, a few fantasy books, an Ipod (which he was told not to listen to during class), and several puzzles.

Harry decided that he would do something nice for Olivia and the rest of the SVU.

Though to his disappointment, he received nothing from his friends in England or any news from his friends since leaving it. He had even checked the post office to see if there was any international mail, but they had nothing. They would have called him if there was, because the Americans at least kept up with the times.

At this rate England was fast becoming a distant (and painful) memory.

Though he did wake up the next morning to see a rather interesting pelican with a package from Sirius and Remus. They, at least, had remembered.

Even if he did have to cast a quiet 'finite' on the package just to be sure it didn't have anything like a hidden port key on it. He was paranoid, not stupid. Though he did send back a rather irritated letter asking why he couldn't contact any of them and that if they saw Ron or Hermione to tell the bushy haired girl to remember to pack her cell phone next time.

* * *

"Whatcha got there kid?" asked the receptionist.

"Delivery for the SVU unit. You can check for bombs if you like," joked Harry.

He had spent most of the morning baking these, going off the information he had gotten his first day in America.

The receptionist opened the boxes, and aside from reading the note he left on the muffins he knew Olivia liked, she told him to leave the baked goods to the side so an officer could pick them up. He never left a name, because he was fairly certain Olivia would pick up on the fact he was the one who made them anyway.

He missed Detective Munch entering the building after a late lunch...and the fact that the rather cynical man took the boxes up since he was heading back to his desk.

"What's in the boxes?"

"Baked goods. Not sure which bakery, though there's a note inside," said Munch, putting the boxes next to the coffee machine.

One by one, the police who went to get some coffee would look inside the boxes and pick out their favorites before returning to work. Some even took a few extra to eat on patrol.

It was Olivia who figured out who delivered the treats and the 'Keep up the good work' note inside the second box of muffins.

A quick word with the receptionist gave Olivia all the confirmation she needed.

"Wonder who brought these in?" asked Elliot.

"Harry did," said Olivia.

"Your cousin?" said Elliot. Olivia nodded. "Kid's got talent. These are better than that bakery three blocks down."

With that little morale booster, everyone went back to work, though some jokingly left requests to Olivia to see if her cousin could make more.

* * *

Harry fiddled with something in his hands while waiting. Dr. Huang was currently consulting with a case, so he would wait for at least half an hour before heading off to his martial arts lesson.

After the first time he saw a Rubik's Cube, he had always wanted to try playing with one. So he was somewhat surprised Olivia bought one on the way home from work along with some puzzles for him to complete in his large amount of free time. Huang thought it was good for him to solve puzzles.

"Sorry I'm late."

"Bad case?" asked Harry, not really caring. It wasn't his business, but if it was bad that meant Olivia would probably enjoy a night off from take-out food.

She quickly bought some recipe books, extra kitchen supplies for the more interesting dishes, and kept the fridge fully stocked so Harry could cook. He was better at it than she was. If it required any special ingredients Harry generally went out to get them personally. He also did the laundry and they sometimes swapped on who did the dishes.

"Not particularly pleasant, but not as bad as some," said Huang, not telling him much of anything.

Harry said nothing, but kept fiddling with the Rubik's cube. So long as he was able to pay attention enough to answer questions, Huang wasn't going to tell him to put it away. Sometimes patients needed a distraction so they could loosen up enough to let details slip.

He could tell Harry was one of those who were particularly guarded about their emotions and didn't trust easily. He mostly only came because Huang wouldn't tell Olivia anything he didn't want known.

For the most part he only came to these sessions because he was tired of the nightmares of seeing Cedric die because he was being a noble idiot. They used to come once a week, but after a few sessions he rarely had them more than once a month, if that.

Two months of once-a-week sessions had also helped him deal with the way he had been put on a pedestal and ostracized by nearly the _entire_ school back in second year, and again in the fourth year.

Today Harry was so intent on solving the cube that he didn't realize he was talking a little _too_ much about his past. Dr. Huang got more out of him in that one session than he had in two months.


	2. Chapter 2

"Explain to me one more time how the bloody hell you suckered me into going to a rave," said Harry impatiently. He practically had a saint-like patience, but this was pushing it. He hated crowds on a good day, and raves like this gave him migraines. He could barely tolerate listening to what most of the other kids called 'music' without trying to actively short out their damn Ipods with his magic.

He had found out completely by accident that he could cause a minor EMP burst using nothing more than his magic and a little concentration. His devices were promptly shielded from it once he found that out, but the same wouldn't be said for his classmates.

Needless to say the students were beginning to wonder if there was some sort of poltergeist because their phones always abruptly _died_ during tests...which generally went hand in hand with them LOSING said phone or device to the teacher because they would pull it out in full view and have it confiscated for the rest of the week.

Harry's magical teachers actually approved of his prank, which was why they never told him to stop it.

Back to him being out after dark though.

Maureen had tricked him into going to a rave she heard about, thinking Harry should have some experience as a _normal_ teenager. Which generally meant staying out after curfew and going to parties.

Harry on the other hand was of a different opinion. He prefer peace and quiet and _hated_ getting into trouble. He had had enough trouble to last for one life time _without_ trying to find it! The only reason he wasn't ditching her right now was because unlike Maureen he fully planned to keep her away from trouble.

Meaning he would keep her as far as he could away from any alcohol, drugs, or people who looked more than two years older than they were.

There was a reason why Elliot privately labeled him as a 'good influence' on his daughter.

Five minutes into the rave, and he already had a migraine. Unfortunately he was working overtime keeping his friend from getting drunk. Eventually he convinced her to go upstairs where the DJ was.

It was pretty clear she planned to ditch him the first chance she had to get drunk.

After thirty minutes his patience reached a breaking point. He had his Ipod on him, and it was pretty clear the DJ was using some computer program to do the music and the 'scratching'.

During a small break between the songs, Harry walked up to the DJ and had a quiet word...well, it was less of a word and more of Harry challenging his skills at being a disc jockey. He even wagered a couple hundred to get the man's interest.

A few minutes later the mood abruptly shifted from headache inducing nightmare to a controlled party vibe.

Harry proved to be a better DJ than the idiot who agreed to play the music.

So when the cops busted the place (the crowd got too rowdy and got their attention) Harry managed to remove his Ipod and then proceeded to drag Maureen up and over the roofs. He had noticed before going in that the roof to the next door building was more than close enough to jump across, and it would take time for the cops to get to the upper levels considering how packed the place was.

And since he had gotten a bad feeling when she dragged him to a party she heard about, he had brought his wand just in case, in a reinforced holster to prevent it from breaking.

They managed to make it across the roof to the other building, where Harry quietly unlocks the door. Maureen shivered. This place was creepy.

Because he was so used to the dark, it took little time for his eyes to adjust and lead them outside and past the cops cars.

They managed to make it a block away before Maureen stopped shaking.

"How the hell did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"Sneak past all those cops without even attracting their attention!"

Much as she hated to admit it, she had been impressed at how smoothly Harry had lead them out of trouble and away from the cars. He had been so calm through the whole thing that she had followed his lead without being told. None of the guys she had ever dated had been that cool or collected about ditching the cops during a raid on a party!

"Practice. Well that and I've faced scarier things than a bunch of coppers trying to arrest people for underage drinking and an illegal party."

Honestly, escaping over the roofs and past the cars was child's play considering all the sneaking around he did back at Hogwarts, where everything from the portraits to Peeves could rat you out at any moment. And this was without his invisibility cloak with him!

Harry looked at his cell, which he generally kept on silent, and had an evil grin on his face.

Apparently Olivia had realized he was gone and called Elliot, who similarly discovered his daughter wasn't in her bed...and then called them both. Maureen likely hadn't realized her dad had busted her for being out.

"Do you feel up to walking, or do you want to call a cab?" asked Maureen finally.

"I left my wallet at home," lied Harry, before he had an evil idea "But I think I can call one of my friends from school to pick us up. One of them is probably awake and I could pay them later."

Maureen didn't pay attention to _who_ Harry was texting...at least not until a far too familiar car drove up with her rather unhappy father inside.

She stared at him in betrayal.

"What's that saying you American's have? Oh yes... Payback's a bitch."

"I'm soooo going to make you pay for this," she said.

"Not before you end up grounded for a while because you tricked me into an illegal rave. You know I hate crowds."

"You two alright?" asked Elliot, though inwardly he was fuming.

"We're fine, though she should have known dragging me to an illegal rave when I'd rather be reading was going to come back to bite her in the ass."

Elliot believed him. Harry made it very clear he hated crowds and loud noises. He also never actively sought out parties like most kids his age in a big city. He was perfectly happy staying home reading.

The fact he had texted Elliot with their location was probably spite and a little revenge on his daughter.

Olivia was upset, but unlike Maureen, Harry wasn't grounded. He had texted Elliot instead of trying to sneak back in at two in the morning and she knew it wasn't his idea to go to a rave.

Instead he got a minor lecture on the dangers of the less patrolled areas of the city...which was followed by praise because he had kept Maureen from the alcohol and from being preyed on by people looking for a vulnerable girl. Unlike him, she had never taken martial arts classes.

However he would have to do the dishes for the rest of the week.

Maureen was still pissed with him, despite how impressed she was that he had been able to sneak around like that, refused to talk to him for days.

Harry shook his head and could care less. She didn't seem to realize how lucky she was to even _have_ parents that gave a damn about you, let alone having such a nice life.

* * *

Huang came prepared for him this time. It was some overly complicated Chinese puzzle, and once he was given permission to try and solve it, he was oblivious to the questions.

Well, perhaps oblivious wasn't the right word. More like he heard them and responded unaware that while his active brain was busy solving the puzzle, his subconscious one was reacting to stimuli he didn't know he had. If there was one thing he hated, it was liars.

When the session ended he had gotten half the puzzle solved. It was more interesting than the Rubik's cube.

* * *

Olivia was worried, and it probably didn't help that she spent her days working on cases that involved abused children. Dr. Huang had mentioned it was easier to get answers from her cousin while he was actively distracted solving puzzles. The more difficult and challenging the puzzle, the longer and potentially easier it was to get answers.

Harry was a boy who preferred his privacy. He likely hadn't caught on to his little habit of answering questions he normally wouldn't if his mind wasn't distracted.

Huang told her where to get some of the more complicated Chinese puzzles at a good price. Harry was particularly good at solving logical puzzles, working methodically until something worked.

Once Harry saw the box on the table, he didn't say anything. Olivia waited until after they had eaten before she told him to open it.

Once he was safely enamored with the wooden box (which had something inside of it, usually some stone or another with Chinese symbols as a sort of generic prize, or even carvings of a Zodiac animal like the dragon) Olivia began her interrogation.

Huang hadn't told her anything specific (he was bound by doctor-patient confidentiality, even if they were cousins), but what he could tell her was that she needed to have a long chat with Harry. Preferably before something happened.

So Olivia started with something safe. Namely the school Harry went to before coming here.

"So what school did you go to before you left England?"

"Hogwarts School for Witchcraft and Wizardry. I prefer the ones here though," said Harry, trying to slip another block into the slots.

"Witchcraft and Wizardry?"

"I'm still not sure why they call it witchcraft and wizardry, considering they're one and the same."

"You mean like those books you're always reading."

"Yeah, they're for homework."

Olivia blinked.

"Magic homework."

"Yeah. Found out when I was eleven that I was a wizard. Apparently the reason Aunt Petunia didn't want me in her house was because I inherited the magic gene from my parents."

"Okay, well what was Hogwarts like?" asked Olivia, setting aside the whole 'magic' thing for now.

"It was okay, but honestly I prefer the public schools here. At least here they don't automatically put me on a pedestal and think I'm some evil jerk just because I can talk to snakes, or because of some outdated house system."

"Talk to snakes."

Harry paused in his puzzle-solving, blinked twice, before actually looking at her.

"Oops... well, I suppose I don't really have much reason to hide things from you now..." he mumbled, before heading into his room and bringing a few things out.

The first of which was a photo album Olivia had seen before...but this time he had a strange thirteen inch stake thing in his hand made of polished wood with a few intricate designs. She had seen it before but not given it much thought.

Harry opened up the photo album to a specific page...before he waved the stake thing over it and said clearly "Finite Incantatum."

What happened next would change a lot of things in Olivia's life...because the pictures _moved._

"What..."

Harry let her examine the page, but she couldn't find anything to explain it.

"Magicals have this potion that they soak the photo paper in, and once it's printed they move. In Hogwarts they even have these portraits that can talk back to you. I actually paid one of the other students for copies of his pictures of the castle, once I heard what he was doing."

Collin had been more than happy to share the photos, but Harry took one look at the work and felt he deserved to be paid for it. If only so he could buy more film, paper and the potion that made it move.

"I don't believe it," said Olivia. It was kinda hard to believe.

"Well I can give you even more proof, since I know cops like to have a lot of evidence before they can prove something," said Harry.

So the next morning, after Harry reluctantly told Olivia of the truth, he took her to a little side alley that served as the entrance to the magical areas.

And at the end of her day off, Olivia was convinced. Magic was not only real, but her cousin could use it. He also got her a strange sort of ID that she put in with her badge that would allow her to work with some of the 'magical cops' in the event a wizard or witch happened to cross into her department.

Considering she dealt with children under 18 and those who had been sexually assaulted, she sincerely hoped she didn't have to help with a case. The fewer cases she had to deal with, the happier she was.

Even if it _did_ give her a way to help her cousin work through the trauma he had to deal with before he came to live with her.

* * *

Now that he had come out and told her about magic, Harry seemed to be slightly more nervous about being around Olivia. Would she be like Hermione's parents, who were okay with it, or like the Dursleys and reject him completely?

Much to his surprise (and open relief) she seemed to be in the middle of the spectrum, falling more along the line of Hermione's parents. She was unsure about it, but she was willing to give it a shot.

Either way she realized she definitely had to find a house, because now that his magic lessons were more out in the open the apartment was slightly cramped. Harry was good about putting his things away, but she had had more than one complaint about the smell from his potions kit.

At this point she was just glad that Harry had opened up more. Even if he was a little annoyed by the trick she had pulled by getting him to talk by having most of his attention on a complicated Chinese puzzle. (One which he completed two days later. Apparently there was a stone carving of what he quickly identified as a phoenix inside.)

* * *

"So Liv, how goes the house hunting?" asked Elliot. He had suggested a few places for her to look.

Olivia pulled up three choices. One was close to a nice public park but still within distance of the bus that lead to the one Harry went to, one was a few blocks away from the precinct meaning she could walk to work in less than an hour but was slightly more expensive, and the third was next to the magical alley Harry had taken her to.

In the end it was up to Harry, because it was partially his money they were going to be using to pay for it. There was no way she could afford a house on her paycheck.

They were going to look at two of the houses later, and the third during the weekend.

Harry immediately vetoed the one next to the alley. As nice as it was to be able to access his magical heritage a little easier, he had the distinct suspicion that being that close would increase the risk of his old headmaster or old friends finding him and possibly dragging him back to England.

He had _narrowly_ avoided that fate when he signed a document making Olivia his legal guardian with help from the American equivalent of the Ministry, which apparently was the Department for Magic. Unlike the Ministry there was almost no separation between the mundane government and the magical one. Well, outside of those working in the magical side wearing a special pass that allowed them through a wall. And a year-long assessment to determine whether the president was allowed in the know.

So no, if he knew the English as well as he did, then being that close to a magical alley was just asking for trouble.

The one close to the park was vetoed by Olivia when she caught the tell-tale signs of a fledgling gang. The last thing she needed to worry about was her cousin getting roped into that, even if he was a quiet kid who preferred to stay indoors. Fin confirmed that there was a problem in the area that no one really talked about.

Which left the one close to the precinct.

Aside from some structural issues and a rat problem (which would be solved rather quickly once the rodents realized there was an _owl_ allowed in the house...plus a pet snake Olivia agreed to let Harry have since he did happen to like the reptiles), and the fact that the interior could use some major redecorating, it was the best of the three.

"I like it. It has character," said Harry.

"And a backyard," said the realtor.

"Not much of one, but it's big enough for a garden," said Harry, looking outside the window. The 'backyard' barely had room for the rickety swingset that sat near the fencing which was also in need of repairs. In fact if Harry was any judge, the backyard had about enough space to park a pair of trucks side-by-side, provided you didn't want to open the doors.

It was small, but then a house with a backyard went for almost top dollar depending on the size and the amount of effort needed to fix it up. With how small it was, it had a surprising amount of weeds and the swing would have to go because even he could tell the thing was unsafe to sit on.

"And up here is the second floor," said the realtor, trying to draw attention away from the backyard and the swing.

Harry took one look at the bathroom and grimaced. He recognized the state of the toilet anywhere.

"The last owner was heavy-set weren't they?" he said.

The realtor said nothing but kept up the fake smile.

"I wouldn't know," she said, clearly lying through her teeth.

"Well you don't get structural issues like that under a toilet unless the one sitting on it for long periods was over two hundred pounds," Harry said flatly.

This was the best house he had seen, it was in a great area, and it was close to Olivia's work. However the price was a bit high, which meant he was going to do his very best to point out all the obvious (and easily fixable) flaws to knock the price range down to a much better deal.

Olivia didn't know much about houses, and even less about gardening. She had lived alone for years, and was content to let Harry do most of the talking.

In the end Harry managed to knock off a good fifteen thousand off the asking price. He really liked this house.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Okay, small glitch on one of the names. Apparently Elliot's oldest is KATHLEEN, not Maureen. No idea how I got the two mixed up. Also I have up to 8 chapters already written of this story._**

* * *

If moving was a hassle, the bigger nightmare came when they had to renovate the place. If Olivia had any doubts about magic, they went out the window after she saw how quickly things went with Harry's magic helping out. He didn't know many house hold charms, but when he found a book on them he got a lot of practice.

Certainly made cleaning up after the paint and wallpaper a lot easier.

And that was _before_ he got to the garden.

Harry enlisted the aid of some of his friends, a few sledge hammers, and a rented garbage dumpster that would be picked up in the morning. It took several hours of hard work, the promise of free food and sodas, but they managed to not only clear out the broken down cement walk ways and the old swing, but to clear out the majority of the overgrown areas.

It was amazing how much could get done with a single afternoon's work. She didn't know what he was planning to do with the backyard, but as long as it wasn't illegal she would let him have at it.

She almost collapsed onto her chair at work.

"Rough week?"

"Rough clean up. I don't know how they cleared that yard out in only a day," said Olivia. Still, there was something to be said with cleaning things up yourself, and they still had to get an electrician, a plumber and a whole slew of people to come in and help update the house. Harry also mentioned something about wards, but she wasn't paying attention at that point. She just knew he had to get some sort of special pass that would allow him to use magic in public now that he would be living full-time in America.

It was mostly a way to lessen the paperwork in the events he had to defend himself with his magic, rather than with the hard-earned skills he had been acquiring at the lessons in the dojo.

In the meantime Olivia had some case files to go through.

* * *

"Thank magic for time turners. I never would have gotten this much done if I couldn't be in two places at once," said Harry to himself.

He had the curtains drawn, so no one called Olivia asking her if she knew he was skipping school to work on the house. Once his 'other' self got home he would go into the attic, reverse time an hour extra, then get to work once Olivia left. So far he had managed to get most of the living room and bedrooms painted and the wallpaper put up.

He put up his paint brush and then went into the garden to continue removing all the old dead plants. Good thing he was _used_ to long hours of weeding.

He left the windows open _just_ enough to air out and make it easier for the paint and glue to dry, but it was wedged by a spell to make it so it couldn't be opened further.

Now all he needed to do was get some stones to act as the path, because the concrete before was just tacky looking and ugly.

Hearing the door open, he waited for a few minutes before going inside and picking up the backpack that his 'other' self had left on the counter. He needed a break anyway.

Once he was done with his mundane school work, he got to work on making something to eat. Olivia would be showing up for dinner in a few hours.

By the time she came back, he was crashed on the couch.

He woke up a few minutes after she came in.

"Rough day at school?"

"More like rough day in the garden. Those weeds are a _nightmare_ , but then again I am making that place a blank slate."

"You know I heard a funny story from the woman who's cat keeps getting in through the fence. She said she saw you working during school hours."

Harry winced.

"I am not skipping school if that's what you're insinuating. Ask any of my teachers and they'll all tell you I was at school all day," he said defensively.

"What's going on Harry?" asked Olivia, turning to face him.

"Do you believe in time travel?"

"I'm keeping an open mind."

"There's an artifact called a time-turner. For every turn of the hourglass you can go back an hour in time. However the catch is that you can't be seen by yourself, or it'll cause a major issue. I think it's because most wizards are idiots and would attack their past selves."

"What does this have to do with you working on the house during school?"

"Because after I come home I go into the attic, turn back time to an hour before I leave for school and then work until my 'past' self comes back and I stop for the day."

"And what is the effects of turning back time?"

"Uh...minor core exhaustion. However I'm not doing it on the weekends and I fully intend to call in sick and take a few days off once we're done."

He wasn't like Hermione. Instead of multiple _minor_ jumps over the period of several months, which tended to accumulate very fast. He did one BIG jump and he took days off. He also didn't practice magic during the jumps and only on weekends.

In other words, unlike his old friend he didn't overwork himself and knew when it was time to take a day off.

He was still irritated they hadn't tried contacting him though.

Olivia sighed.

"You still do your homework and attend classes right?" she asked finally.

"First thing I do once the 'other' me goes back in time. So long as I don't overdue it, it's perfectly safe. And I'm not using it to do anything illegal either."

There was very little she could do. As long as he kept his grades up and his nose clean, she would allow it. Then an idea came to her.

"I'll come help during my lunch breaks," she said finally.

Harry perked up. He didn't expect her to be okay with all this, and she was handling magic fairly well.

* * *

Harry was about to head out to get some food when he saw an owl winging it.

It looked pretty tired, almost like Errol usually was while delivering a howler to one of the twins.

Okay, he went from a relatively calm mood to annoyed in three seconds.

It took them _six months_ to finally contact him?!

He went inside, then got his wand. He was not taking any chances. The owl practically collapsed onto the table.

"Finite Incantatum," said Harry firmly, and there was the distinct feeling of several enchantments breaking. Why had the owl shown up at his new home rather than go to the magical alley like it was supposed to? All of his mail was to be redirected to his post box in the alley, to prevent people from harassing him at his doorstep.

Irritated beyond belief, he decided to make a few snacks for the precinct. He was a familiar face now...and almost unanimously welcomed by the cops because he generally brought them food.

Better to read what they had to say for themselves with Olivia in case he needed a reason _not_ to curse something. And if there were charms on it he missed, like ones to track his location, then leaving it in the trash or somewhere discreet was a great way to confuse them if they showed up suddenly.

Besides, if they tried to forcibly drag him back then he wanted a lot of people with guns between him and a bunch of well meaning idiots. He didn't hate Hogwarts, but he certainly didn't look back on it with any fond memories.

Nearly getting killed at least once a year while going to school can do that to you.

"Hey kiddo. What're you doing here so late?" asked Elliot.

"I figured it was better to read this here then at home in case I had the urge to strangle someone," said Harry, not really joking.

"What's that?"

"First letter from England since I left. Either they finally figured out I wasn't in Europe, or someone _finally_ opened the letter I sent back a few months ago."

"I didn't know international mail took so long."

"It doesn't. At most it should have been a few weeks. Not to mention the fact that it should have been forwarded to my P.O. box and not sent straight to our new house."

"Yeah, that does sound a little suspicious."

"Hence why I came here instead of opening it up at home."

Olivia was sitting at her desk when he opened it. He could feel something settle on the first piece of furniture...which happened to be her computer. Good thing she didn't have any pictures of the two of them together on her desk, and the pure bloods wouldn't know how to operate a computer even if one fell on them. The only pictures she had of them from their days off were on her computer.

Be interesting to see the wizard's faces if they showed up without any warning or announcement. At the very least it would constitute breaking and entering.

Idiots.

"So what's it say?"

"From my old headmaster...and Hermione apparently. It's more or less them chastising me for leaving without telling them where I was going and that if I don't return to England soon I'll have to make up the entire year," said Harry rolling his eyes.

He passed the letter to Olivia.

She raised her eyebrows.

"He's got a lot of nerve. It's almost like he thinks you're his son or something. And your friend's not much better."

"Well she always was bossy. She used to make up these _insane_ study schedules come exam time and we weren't allowed to do anything to unwind until they were over. You can see why I was so glad to go into public school," said Harry.

"I bet."

"You want anything for dinner or should we order in?" asked Harry, not even bothering to pick the letter up.

"Why don't we order in for tonight," said Olivia. "Still have the urge to strangle something?"

"Only a pillow or possibly an icing tube for some cupcakes," said Harry.

"Chocolate!" shouted one of the officers, only half joking.

"Lemon!" said another.

Next thing he knew there was a minor debate on which flavor was better. Harry snickered.

"You do realize that Olivia can text me the requests for tomorrow right?" he called out. That got most of the bickering to stop, though it did cause a few to chuckle.

* * *

A few days later there was an attempted break in at the precinct, and several people wearing odd clothing with sticks were arrested by those still in the station.

Harry had never laughed so hard in his life, even while Olivia called in the magical police to take them into custody.

Mainly because one of them was Remus.

Out of the group sent to America in the hopes of finding the missing Potter boy, only one walked out of the country with their wand intact and without an attempted kidnapping charge.

And the irony was that the lone wizard was a werewolf.

Because they had been sniffing around Olivia's desk, the magical police let her do the interrogation of Remus. Harry was behind a scent-proof one-way mirror watching the entire thing. With a camera. And he fully planned to let Sirius watch this if he ever came here.

He watched with open amusement as Olivia worked Remus over but good. She was very good at getting information, and if it wasn't for the fact Remus was being interrogated by a mundane (at least, as far as he knew she was) the information Olivia got would have made him frown.

Apparently Dumbledore only wanted him back because of some half-assed prophecy Remus didn't know the wording of, though the general gist was that he had to kill Tom or Tom would have to kill him for the war to finally end. The entire thing stunk, because the only Seer Dumbledore had on hand (and would definitely explain how the hell she got a job when she reeked of sherry and questionable incense all the time) was Trelawny. Considering the last real prophecy she made only came true because he walked right into it, he had the sneaking suspicion that the other one was like that too.

Which...would explain a lot actually.

* * *

Olivia came out, looking pretty damn pissed about the whole situation. This old man was trying to get her favorite cousin (who she viewed as a younger brother at this point) killed all because of some vague prophecy. And the only reason she wasn't going to have Remus thrown in jail was because Harry asked her to leave him be.

Either way there was no chance in hell she was letting them take her cousin back to England. Not after what little the werewolf let slip about this Dumbledore's plans to have Harry trained up like a soldier to kill this Dark Lord.

"I feel like Oedipus Rex," complained Harry.

"Who?"

"Our drama teacher had us studying Greek plays. Oedipus was a prince who shortly after he was born was placed under a disturbing prophecy stating he would kill his father and marry his mother. The parents were so horrified that they ordered someone to cast him out into the wilds to die, only he was saved by a shepherd and taken to a childless king and queen and raised as their son. Years later he found out about the prophecy and ran away, and came across a rude man at a crossroads. There was an argument and the other man was killed. Shortly after he came across a kingdom under attack by a Sphinx, and when he solved the riddle and killed it, he became the king and married the queen. When a plague struck, an oracle told them to find the killer of the previous king, only to discover that the killer was the same prince they had cast out and had married the queen. Because of the king and queen's actions, they caused the prophecy to come true...and the worst part was by the time the plague hit they had already had several daughters together, never realizing they were directly related," explained Harry.

Olivia looked a little ill at the thought.

"And as if that wasn't bad enough, when he realized what he had done Oedipus removed his eyes and his mother killed herself in penance," continued Harry.

"What was the point of the story?"

"It was a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they hadn't cast him out in hopes that he would die, he would never have been raised away from his parents and wouldn't have fulfilled the prophecy in the first place. His name Oedipus actually means 'swollen foot' because his foot had always been swollen since they threw him away," explained Harry.

"Meaning you think this is another one," said Olivia.

"I don't think, I know. If I'm right and the current divination teacher made this prophecy (which would explain a lot) then the only way for it to come true is to actively seek out the guy to kill him. And there's no way I'm doing that."

"So what do you want to do with him?" asked Olivia, nodding to the werewolf.

"Read him the riot act then dump a port key on him with the clear intention of kicking his furry ass to the curb if he tries to come here with a group of people again," said Harry flatly. The magical police (called Sparkies as a joke) handed Harry a port key. It would only activate once it touched the werewolf, and Harry fully intended on dropping the paper on Remus once he was done chewing him out for trying to kidnap him.

There was a firm notice on the paper stating that if they caught him on American soil again, then he would be arrested without bail and left to rot in their prison for a week.

Remus looked up when he caught Harry's scent. Then he caught the expression on the boy's face.

"Four months."

"I'm sorry? Four months what?"

"I sent back a letter _four bloody months_ ago, and all I got back was a lousy owl from Hermione and Dumbledore chastising me about leaving Europe and not continuing the same crappy education I got at Hogwarts? Not a single letter or note from _any_ of you, and I did try to contact everyone but not one owl I rented ever came back with a delivery notice. They always came back with the letters."

"I..."

"So you have some bloody explaining as to why, now that I've started to get my life together for once, you think it's _your_ job to drag me back to England despite the fact none of you bothered to get your lazy arses up and owl me!" said Harry pissed.

"We couldn't find you!"

"Bloody, self-centered, moronic idiots! I tried to owl you at least ten times the first month I was here, but none of the letters could find you, or anyone! Even Hermione's parents couldn't get a hold of her, because she left her bloody cell phone before she bollixed off to play with the teachers! Not a single one of you even bothered to owl me on my birthday, let alone tried to contact me, and yet suddenly when I do get a letter from England, it leads to an attempted kidnapping!"

"But the blood wards..."

"The blood wards, according to _Dumbledore_ require someone from my mother's side of the family to work. Petunia found one of her cousins and I've been living with them until now. And as for my magic, I've been doing home-schooling until the next scheduled exam date. I don't need Hogwarts, and I don't need Albus bloody Dumbledore trying to dictate who I can live with or where I go," said Harry sharply. Remus flinched.

Harry dropped the papers on the table.

"Next time you try to find me, get your bloody facts straight," said Harry angrily. He left the room, missing the surprised look on Remus' face when the port key went off and dumped him in King's Cross Station.

Olivia hugged her cousin, because she knew he did miss England...to a point...and the fact they didn't even consider that maybe he was happier in America hurt him.

Harry had a troubled sleep that night, but he was able to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4

For the most part, they continued with their daily lives. Olivia went to work and Harry rode his now well-used bike to school, seeing as how he didn't really mind the distance.

It seemed like the peaceful days were finally coming their way, despite the nature of Olivia's job.

That is, until exams came for Harry's magical education. He was a nervous wreck! Good thing they held them earlier than those taking them in formal schools. It meant the examiners had a warm-up for the students.

It lasted all of a week, but in the end he was able to collapse on the couch feeling like he had gone through a marathon.

Ordinary Wizarding Levels were no joke. Though to be fair he was glad he didn't have to deal with Hermione's evil study schedules.

Speaking of Hermione...she finally managed to get to her parents house long enough to get her cell phone and call him. Though she had no idea that the number he left with her parents was a burner phone.

He was paranoid, not stupid. He reluctantly ended their friendship when he realized how deeply entrenched in Dumbledore's bullshit Hermione had become. She couldn't believe he had chosen to become a home-schooled student rather than attend Salem, or that he was doing twice the homework by attending a public school.

She also tried to cite the blood wards, only to be cut off by Harry telling her he was living with his mother's second cousin... Dumbledore only said it had to be a relative on his mother's side, he made no mention of how close the relation had to be.

He gave the burner to another student, one who's parents wouldn't get them a cell phone. If anyone called asking for Harry and sounded like a girl, they didn't know him. They just chalked it to girlfriend troubles and didn't say anything.

* * *

"What you got there?" asked Elliot.

"Special delivery from the Sparkies."

"Sparkies?"

"Inside joke. This is a replacement for the tasers. One hit knocks the target out cold without any side effects, other than a little difficulty waking the target up for an hour or so."

"They actually made them?" asked Olivia.

Harry handed her the box. Inside was a set of clips with bullets that were colored a bright fluorescent color. However there was a reason for it. Each bullet had a spell that was 'loaded' into it with a fragment of wood left over from the wand making process. Even if the person firing it was a muggle, it wouldn't matter. The spell was loaded by a magical.

For the most part the spells were benign. Sleep spells, stunners, shock spells...pretty much anything a first year could cast. Cops had enough ways to kill someone with regular bullets.

This was mostly a way for them to take down a suspect _without_ landing the idiot in the morgue.

"Liv, what are these?"

"Think of them as taser bullets that fit in the standard piece all cops have. Only they're more effective and they work even if the suspect's drugged up."

"A group of specialized cops have been working on them since Harry mentioned how hard it was for cops to take out a suspect without actually killing them."

"SVU's getting the first workable versions. Hope you don't mind acting as test dummies," said Harry.

"Was this cleared with the captain?" asked Elliot.

"Cleared, and everyone has to sign a release form. We're being used as a target group to see if these new rounds are effective in apprehending perps without landing them in the hospital or the morgue. If they work they'll be issued to every precinct within a month," said Cragen.

"So who exactly are these 'Sparkies'?" asked Munch.

"That's on a need-to-know basis, and only a select few even have access. Not even I have clearance," said Cragen.

Olivia kept shut, seeing as how _she_ had clearance and knew the requirements.

"Okay, so how did we get them first?" asked Fin.

"I pulled some strings. Figure an anonymous donation to their precinct would help the SVU get a leg up on the newest toys," said Harry. It honestly wasn't much of a donation. He had given the same amount to Fred and George to help kick-start their joke shop.

He also had the goblins pass on a message to the twins in the event they needed a loan to get a shop.

Elliot decided to change the subject.

"So how're you liking that bike you got for Christmas?"

"Makes getting around a lot easier."

Christmas had been a quiet affair, mostly Olivia and Harry crashing at Elliot's house with his family. Kathleen had more or less forgiven Harry for the way he had called her dad after they had been out...mostly because she had heard reports on the news about a rapist being loose in the area at the time. She would rather deal with her dad than run into him.

That wasn't why he did it, but she was still glad her dad picked her up.

* * *

Harry was taking his Apparition license early...primarily because it was available to anyone who had passed a majority of their OWLs. If you couldn't pass those, then you weren't going to get the hang of apparition.

"Next!" said the instructor. This was the magical equivalent of a driver's license.

Harry stepped up to the hula-hoop on the ground.

"To apparate you have to visualize where you want to go, then let your magic take you there. We have an expert team waiting in the event you splinch yourself, provided you don't accidentally leave a head behind or something. You get five tries to make it to the opposite hoop, before you have to get back in line and wait for your turn to come again. You have five attempts total before you have to wait a week to try your luck again," said the instructor.

Harry's first attempt didn't go well, at all. He had to go through the line twice before he finally got the hang of it. _And_ he splinched himself the second try! Thankfully it was only a leg.

His final attempt of the day got him a "learner's permit" stating he could apparate, but he wasn't experienced to do so solo until he had been tested again. He had to undergo a trio of tests before he got his license. The Americans preferred to be very thorough before setting teenagers loose with the ability to teleport. Especially in New York.

* * *

"So how did it go?" asked Olivia.

"I passed the first round. The next test is in a week, and I have to study three locations in order to legally use it within city limits. The last test is so I can apparate inside muggle areas," said Harry.

Passing the second exam meant he could go to magical areas, but not muggle ones. The third one meant he was fully legal.

"Well you got a letter from England. Though it has a lot of postage stamps on it," said Olivia.

Harry picked it up, and the moment he saw who it was he had to hold back a laugh.

"It's Fred and George. They must have figured out that I was in America, or heard from Remus. I hope they didn't use Errol to send this."

The letter had been sent straight to his P.O. Box in the alley, scanned and then forwarded to his home address.

He opened the letter and when he read it, he blinked twice before asking "Do you think we have enough room for two more?"

"What's up?"

"Apparently they left school early, but want to complete their education far from England. However their mother isn't helping matters because she never approved of their goal of opening their own shop. They had to leave because one of the new teachers was targeting students and making everyone who didn't fit a certain stereotype miserable."

"We have a spare bedroom, and as long as they don't do anything illegal I don't see why not."

Olivia was actually curious to meet some of Harry's old friends.

At least these had gone through proper channels...unlike the last group.

"So what are Fred and George like?"

"Well, they're identical twins. They like pranks, and they've always wanted to open their own joke shop. They're the closest thing I've had to brothers since I started Hogwarts. They're also really close. Hang on... I've got a picture of them in my photo album."

Harry went to his room and brought out the album. He searched until he found a picture of him and the Weasleys before the World Cup.

"Here. These two are Fred and George," said Harry.

They looked like trouble, but not of the sort Olivia was used to dealing with.

"They look like they could cause mischief," said Olivia.

"They used to get at _least_ a howler a week from their mother for some prank or another. I can tell them to keep the explosions outside the house, since I don't think our neighbors would like it much."

"Explosions?!"

"Making new prank potions doesn't always go as planned, and they used to cause loud explosions whenever I was staying at their house. I think they might listen to you better than they did their mom though," said Harry. Mrs. Weasley was a nice woman, but she was definitely out of her depth with seven children.

"What makes you say that?"

"She coddles them, and whenever they did something wrong all she would do was yell at them. Howlers are enchanted letters that will scream at a hundred times the user's natural decibel level, and I know for a fact the twins learned to tune her out by the time I was in second year."

"How many kids did this woman have?"

"Seven. Six boys and one girl."

Olivia stared.

"How on earth could they afford _seven_ children?"

"I have no idea. Mrs. Weasley is a house mother, and Mr. Weasley only have a relatively low-paying job that he doesn't really understand very well. He once asked me what the purpose of a rubber duck was," said Harry.

Honestly he felt Olivia might have better success at keeping the twins under control than Mrs. Weasley. Her first reaction wasn't to yell at everything.

It wasn't until he was planning to put the letter back in the envelope that he noticed some writing on the back.

 _P.S., we're bringing our pet dog Snuffles with us. Remus has been in the doghouse and poor Snuffles is going barking mad because he's been forced to stay inside when he wants to run around._

So Sirius was coming too. He would have to explain things to Olivia...and possibly see if Dr. Huang could handle a second patient in desperate need of intensive therapy. He was almost certain Sirius hadn't seen any psychiatrists or shrinks to deal with the trauma of Azkaban, and he didn't know of any magical ones.

He wondered how Remus had handled the way Harry had told him to shove his wand up where the sun didn't shine for trying to drag him back.

Harry wrote a letter to the twins (and Sirius) stating the main rules of the house and that he would help them open up a joke shop in America since he was well known in the alley.

At the very least it would give him something to do, instead of trying to get a part-time job like Elliot had suggested.

They would have to deal with immigration and getting a work-visa, and he would have to clean up one of the four bedrooms in the house, but at least he would FINALLY have some contact from back home.

* * *

"Harrikins!" said Fred, putting an arm around Harry's shoulder and hugging him.

"Smashing to see you old boy!" said George, taking the opposite side.

"Get off you idiots!" said Harry without any real heat.

Sirius, wearing a ridiculous pink color (the twin's idea) with red hearts barked, before he liberally slobbered all over Harry's face.

"Snuffles, knock it off or I won't let you see the video of Remus getting chewed out by Olivia!" said Harry, trying and failing to wipe the slobber off his glasses. Sirius barked with good humor.

"So where is this mysterious cousin who managed to spirit you away from Hogwarts' life?" asked Fred.

"Gred, Forge, meet Olivia Benson. She's a Detective in SVU," said Harry, standing next to her.

Olivia had called in one of her many, many vacation days so she could help drive Harry and his friends back to the house. She just hoped the dog was friendly.

"So what exactly does your cousin do?" asked George, sitting on the bunk bed that Harry had put into 'their' room. It wasn't like they weren't used to sharing a room, and he figured a bunk bed would be a real novelty for the two of them. Besides, it meant more room to walk around.

"She's a muggle Auror who specializes in arresting anyone who hurts children and those who rape others," said Harry simply.

That made them stare.

"What."

"It's like this. Her precinct deals in the more...unpleasant side...of the police work. Say you flashed your willy at someone...the ones you'd deal with are the Special Victims Unit."

"Oh, you mean like the 'special' aurors who deal with traumatized witches and wizards after being attacked by someone like Lockhart," said Fred.

"What? What do you mean someone like Lockhart?" said Harry.

"Well it was kept from the younger years, but apparently the blond idiot had a thing for the fifth years. They found a list of people he gave 'private lessons' to, and it consisted of everyone from the fifth to sixth years. A lot of them had been obliviated, and they had to spend a week at St. Mungo's once the book was found."

"Oh. Well, yeah, that's the sort of thing the SVU specializes in. Since you're under 18, if anything happened odds are you'd be dealing with them unless it was a major crime," said Harry.

"Why 18?"

"Eighteen is the age of majority in the mundane side. You can legally drive at sixteen, but you're not considered an adult until eighteen. Also you can't drink in America until you're 21, unless you're really good at hiding it from Olivia. I was barely able to skate Butterbeer past her," said Harry. It had like, a 2 percent proof to increase the warmth you got drinking it on a cold day, but Harry had narrowly avoided her finding that fact out.

He had put it in the same class as root beer, only it tasted like butterscotch.

"No worries there," said George.

"We've been hiding fire whiskey from our mum since we were fourteen," said Fred.

"So how do you like the room?" asked Harry, changing the subject.

"Bigger than the one we had back home, and at least here we don't have to worry about mum yelling at us or forcing us to clean the house to keep busy," said George.

Fred shuddered.

"Mum went _postal_ when she found out we dropped out without taking our NEWTs. Even after she found out why we left, she was still pissed. I hope I never have to see another gnome again," said Fred.

"No gnomes, but if you care to help me out in the garden I'd appreciate it," said Harry.

"Wait, garden? Is that yours?" asked George, looking out the window to the lush greenery below. It looked like a miniature park in the middle of the city, complete with a well maintained path of tasteful rocks that lead to a nice bench area with a table that had an umbrella.

"Olivia doesn't have the time to maintain a garden, or the interest. She let me have the backyard area so long as I don't plant anything illegal back there. It's my zen place," said Harry, grinning. "So why exactly did it take so long to contact me anyway?"

"We assumed you were being kept from the postal owls," said Fred.

"I sent ten of the things to England, and they always returned the letter!"

Fred and George blinked.

"Wait...you're telling us the entire misunderstanding was because the wards around the Order headquarters confused the owls?"

"Order?"

"Shortly after you told Dumbledore You-Know-Who was back, he reinstated the Order of the Phoenix," said Fred.

"Mum refused to let us join, despite the fact we're of age and fully legal. Got our apparition licenses even," said George.

"Poor world. Hey wait, you can help me get mine then!"

"You're trying to get your license?"

"If you can pass your OWLs, then the Americans consider you old enough to apply for a apparition license. I have to take two more tests before I'm legally allowed to apparate in the muggle side, but I can go to and from the magical alleys now."

"Sweet. Anyway, the Order was made to counter the Death Eaters, but while they have regular meetings we don't really see them doing much. If you had stayed in England you would have just been dragged into mum's cleaning crew."

Harry winced. While he had to help clean the house here, at least he was allowed to use magic. Mrs. Weasley had a habit of locking up all the wands of anyone not seventeen and making everyone do things by hand.

"How bad?"

"Bad. It was Sirius' old house, and it hadn't been lived in for over a decade. Not to mention his mother's portrait that screamed whenever the curtains opened, or the house elf that refused to do _anything_."

Speaking of Sirius, the hound who had been snoring on the chair woke up.

He was exhausted, as he hadn't gotten any sleep with Harry missing. He made a large yawn before closing his eyes and promptly snoring on the cushion.

Harry would put him in his room later. He had missed Sirius.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Okay, someone pointed out that I got the order of Elliot's older children wrong. Maureen is the oldest and Kathleen is younger than her. So just for the record I adjusted Kathleen's age to match Harry's. Hope that settles any confusion.**_

* * *

The first thing Sirius did shortly before Harry had to bike to school was hug him tightly. He had been worried sick since Arabella told them about the Dementor attack and that Harry hadn't been in his aunt's house for weeks. No one knew where he had gone.

Harry planned to come straight home after school so he could help the twins with the paperwork...at least that was the plan. He had the feeling they'd be stuck going to _his_ school to get a high school education in order to get anything done. At least he could sneak a few spelled pens for them to use in order to graduate.

With the assurances that Sirius would be fine and keep out of sight until he explained things to Olivia...she wasn't likely to be happy about the fact he had disguised himself as a dog or slept in Harry's room... and that the twins would wait before they tried to explore the city because it was so easy to get lost, Harry went to school.

When he got home he came into a massive mess.

"What happened?!"

"It's his fault!" said the twins, pointing at Sirius.

"Please for the love of magic don't tell me that's the stove..." said Harry.

"Uh..."

"What happened?"

"Sirius tried to cook," they said, as if that explained everything. They knew the gist of how to cook on the stove, but they were out of their depth when it came to the microwave. Which was why they avoided it.

"Sirius, you are henceforth banned from the kitchen, and you're paying for a new stove."

Sirius whined, but the venomous look Harry shot him kept him from complaining. It was the same one Lily threw at him the last time he tried to cook.

"Good thing I'm not due to bring over another round of baked goods to the precinct," sighed Harry, already looking through the phone book for a take-out place.

"Baked goods?"

"I make things like cookies, muffins, cupcakes and the occasional tarts and take them to the SVU precinct for the cops. They even have a tip jar that Cragen jokingly added to 'pay' for the food. Apparently they work better whenever I bring them over. Of course adding a few drops of cheering solution can do that do you."

Whenever Olivia or any of the other detectives had a particularly unpleasant case, he would add a few potions to make their day a little brighter.

Or in the case when they had a particularly stubborn suspect in, a spritz of veritaserum from a bottle he had in his pocket. It was untraceable by muggles, and it made them more chatty during interrogation.

He had laced his food with the antidote for the truth potion, so the detectives never knew about it.

"Right... Sirius, you are officially paying for the replacement stove. Oh, and word of advice, never put anything metal or reflective in the microwave if you're using it."

"Why?"

"Because then it would let off sparks and ruin the microwave."

"Weird," said George.

"Okay, first you lot help me clean this kitchen before Olivia gets home, and then I'll take you on a tour of the city until dinner. Either way we'll have to order out."

The twins jumped on it. Since Harry could legally apparate to the magical alleys, if they got lost they could return to that point and continue from there. At least they could use magic to clean, since they still had their wands.

It took them thirty minutes to get done, and then Harry took them out on a tour of New York, starting with the Statue of Liberty. He had come here with Olivia shortly after moving to New York. It had been Elliot's idea.

Sirius kept playing the part of a loveable hound, calmly accepting the leash and collar without a hint of protest. Even if they were a bright pink with sparkles. And they kept calling him Tinkletoes.

He was still going to pay for wrecking the kitchen though.

* * *

Fred and George barely withheld their laughter at the sight of Sirius in the dog groomers. The hound was cleaned, cut, given a doggy pedicure, then wrapped up in a big red and gold bow with more sparkles than a _Twilight_ convention.

Sirius looked very put out, even if the one who had done everything was a rather hot looking woman. Harry was annoyed, but not cruel.

"Is that...red and gold nail polish?" said Fred, his voice cracking with the urge not to laugh.

"I still say he would have looked better in silver and green," pouted the girl.

"I'm irritated with him, not cruel. Besides, if I did silver and green it would be gone within an hour at least," said Harry amused at the betrayed look the dog gave him. He had barely tolerated the idea of red and gold nails.

"So how goes the shop-searching?"

"It's okay, but the owners of the spot we found refused to sell to us. Said something about us not having a degree or something," said Fred annoyed.

"High or college?" asked Harry.

"High I think," said George.

"There's an easy way to fix that. You have to go back to school for a year or two. And it won't be a magical one either. On the plus side, you'll be able to explain to your dad about the muggle items he's always nattering on about. And it might get your mum off your case once she finds out where you've gone," said Harry.

"But we don't need our NEWTs!" said Fred.

"I hate to break it to you, but I've learned more about magic from the home-school courses than I ever did at Hogwarts. They actually have more classes and the potions are easy to understand. Did you know they were horrified because Snape never covered basic reaction tables?"

They didn't look convinced.

"They also have this hot teacher about twenty who comes in to give the tests once a week," said Harry.

"Sold!" said the twins.

What Harry neglected to tell them was that the teacher was a guy. He wasn't above pranking the twins, and that it had been Olivia who had jokingly called him hot when Harry wasn't in the room while talking to another one of his teachers.

He had saved up that comment for just such an occasion.

* * *

"Harry, you're evil," said George, though he was grinning.

"We're so proud!" said Fred, throwing his arm around Harry.

They had been pranked and pranked good. Even Sirius was laughing at them, though he laughing in dog form.

The teacher had been enthusiastic about making them rethink the way they used magic. For someone like Harry, who had only ever seen it as a tool, thinking of using his power creatively came easily.

For traditionally raised and trained wizards like Fred and George, this was an unusual wake up call. Fortunately they were _used_ to being evil creative geniuses. It still meant that they were checking out fantasy novels (at Harry's suggestion) regularly at the library.

They were still going to start a minor prank war for tricking them into learning twice over.

Being thrown into mundane high school had been a nasty shock, thankfully Harry took pity on them and had them labeled as home schooled. And made sure they had spelled pens in lieu of quills.

And wasn't that a novelty for them. Being able to write without having to use a feather or having to dip it in ink repeatedly.

Still, Olivia seemed amused that he had tricked the twins into actually getting a decent education. Hogwarts was good for learning the bare basics of magic, but not much else. And Molly Weasley wasn't exactly a qualified teacher...just look at Ron! He could barely pass his tests and his handwriting was atrocious!

"So...what's the deal with the cupcakes, cookies and pies you keep taking down the street?" asked Fred.

"And the jar," added George.

"The precinct Olivia works out of is three blocks from the house, and I take requests from the cops because I work for tips and because they like mine better than the bakery nearby. Also it improves morale because on tough cases I lace them with a light spray of cheering and calming potions."

Well that and he was fully aware of what his cousin did for a living and he supported her. He wouldn't have taken the tip money as payment, but the cops insisted. Apparently it was a novelty to have family that not only understood the job they did every day, but was perfectly fine with it, even bringing them snacks every week.

"In fact, why don't you help me carry the boxes?" said Harry.

"What about the oven?"

"I had that replaced during school hours. Sirius was under polyjuice as me and let the installer in. We'll get to break in the new oven and all the other new appliances Sirius paid for and bring the cops their weekly treats~!"

Fred and George watched Harry bustle about the kitchen wearing an apron with amused expressions on their faces. Sirius was currently with the Sparkies in order to get legal citizenship and help the twins purchase the shop they wanted. Legally he was the owner, but in reality it was the twins and Harry. Sirius would run the place while they were in school.

"He's even more funny to watch than mum in the kitchen," said George.

"Yeah, but his cooking's better."

They loved their mother, they really did. But she was so used to cooking in bulk that half the time the flavor fell short. Harry's cooking, while done it bulk was packed with flavor and made it highly addicting.

"Anything we can do to help?" asked Fred.

"See this icing? I need you to mix food coloring into it so that it's a nice golden color. I'll add the coloring but you have to mix it together. The same goes for these," said Harry, holding out three mixing bowls filled with homemade icing. They couldn't really mess that up, and he would let them frost some of the extra cupcakes later.

The two of them made a small production, messing around with the food coloring in the extra frosting. The three bowls he set aside once they were thoroughly mixed together, and he let them play with the extra.

It wasn't like they wouldn't eat the leftovers.

"What happened in here?" asked Olivia, seeing the twins looking like they had just come out of a hippie fest.

"They had a little too much fun with food coloring and the icing. Fortunately there's more than enough for the cupcakes. What brought you home early?"

"Well I thought I'd take you all out to lunch."

"Caught a lucky break on a case?"

"More like if I had to listen to more of Munch's paranoid ramblings I'd have to slip something unpleasant in his coffee. We have a case that unfortunately brings out his inner paranoid conspiracy nut," said Olivia.

"Works for me. We can drop off the baked goods on our way to lunch. And maybe once we eat we can pick up a copy of the _Star Wars_ movie, since I know they've never seen it," said Harry, snickering.

"Movie night does sound like fun," said Olivia.

Order in, make some popcorn and settle in for a long movie marathon with people who've never seen it? Definitely sounded like a relaxing night in.

Watching the twin's reactions to the _Star Wars_ movies was absolutely _hilarious_. And to add to it was the fact that they honestly believed the movie was real.

Of course after they saw the movies, the twins just _had_ to get fake lightsabers to play with.

* * *

"So what's this game called again?" asked Fred.

"Basketball. The baseball place is closed until next week, so I figured this was a reasonable substitute since there's no way I can see you two being able to play American Football."

Harry dribbled the ball a bit, before shooting it neatly.

"Nice shot!" shouted another player.

"So what's the point of this game?" asked George.

"Same as Quidditch, you get the ball into the hoop. Only there's no flying, you don't have to dodge any other balls, and most of the players generally tend to be pretty tall. Like Madam Maxime-sized tall. I can give you the rulebook later, but since this is an informal game you don't have to worry about the minor details."

The twins looked at each other, then at the ball in Harry's hand. It was sorta like a quaffle, only it bounced and made a nice thump on the ground when it hit.

Then they looked at the hoops. They weren't as tall as the quidditch hoops, and they were horizontal instead of the vertical they were used to.

"You do remember we used to be _beaters_ right? We're not used to being chasers."

"Then just pass the ball to someone on your team and act as defense," said Harry simply.

"We can do that," said the twins in unison.

Basketball, as it turned out, wasn't too dissimilar to Quidditch. However it was much more exhausting. Fred and George damn near passed out on the bench from all the running they did. Since this was their first game, the other guys didn't rib them too much for minor mistakes.

Harry, however, was the one to beat. He was able to shoot the ball from halfway across the court to the hoop.

His eyes were good enough to track a Snitch back in Hogwarts, but with the contacts he wore now his aim had greatly improved... and it helped that he generally practiced with his new friends during gym.

Wizards didn't have any sports outside Quidditch that let them exercise. It was little wonder the twins were out of breath.

"Potter, a word with you!" shouted the coach from school.

"Wonder what Coach Barnes wants?"

"Who knows," said Harry, though that tone sounded familiar for some reason. Shortly before he went into the school, he remembered where he heard that tone before.

McGonagall had the same tone when she told Woods that she had found him a seeker.

Harry came out fifteen minutes later.

"So what did coach want?"

"Apparently he wants me on the school team. I'd have to get Olivia's permission, but it means I'd have a chance to play."

"So are you going for it?"

"I don't see why not. To be honest the only thing I have to do most days is baking and working in the garden. I just didn't want to take someone else's spot on the school teams after only a few months of playing," said Harry shrugging.

"Dude, you have the best free throw we've ever seen, and you see where the ball is going long before it lands. I'm surprised he didn't call you in sooner!" said Dave.

"So...are we going to have another game or are we going to stand around yakking like the cheerleaders?" joked Harry.

"Skins versus shirts?" said Dave grinning, tossing the ball to Harry.

"You're on," said Harry.

The twins, realizing they could either play or watch, got up and joined the others. They had twenty minutes to get their breath back, and this basketball thing was really fun. More interesting than quidditch, that was for sure.

* * *

"Basketball team?"

"Apparently the coach was impressed at how easily I throw the ball into the hoop, and said that I could get on the reserve team, and possibly the main if I improve."

"So you just need my signature?"

"And a drive to the store to pick up some gear. It's too far for me to ride there," said Harry.

"We'll go after work tomorrow," said Olivia. Harry nodded, and went to work on making dinner.

Olivia watched her cousin, who was more like a little brother at this point. He had really adjusted well once he knew she wasn't going to send him back to England. When he first came he had nightmares practically every night, but several months of therapy had helped him work out most of them. And opening up about his magic had only made them closer.

What Harry didn't know was that the papers Olivia had sent to Petunia six months after he moved in were more than papers for her to relinquish her guardianship of him...they were actually adoption papers. She had sent them practically overnight back to her.

He was legally an American citizen, both mundane and magical.

It was hard to believe that she now had a little brother in her life that knew about her past and didn't care...and also approved of her job enough that he brought food over every week to cheer them on. She really had lucked out when it came to estranged family.


	6. Chapter 6

It was Munch who found the article in the paper. Naturally he had to bring it to Olivia's attention.

"What's this?"

"I guess the _Times_ is having a slow week. Look who's on page three," he said, handing it over. He always started his shift by reading the paper, unless they were on a case already.

Olivia turned the page and blinked.

" _ **Manhattan's Special Victims Unit golden boy**_?" read Olivia. There wasn't a picture, but the fact it mentioned the department definitely got her attention.

 _ **Manhattan's Special Victims Unit golden boy**_

 _ **We've all heard of the Special Victims Unit and their stellar detective force. But what about the backbone of their courageous detectives? Who is it that these brave men and women of the Special Victims Unit look to when things seem bleak during a nasty case?**_

 _ **Imagine this reporter's surprise when, during a routine fact-finding mission I found out about the well hidden support for one of the unit's most well respected detectives, Olivia Benson.**_

 _ **While I was at the precinct I saw a boy not more than fifteen or sixteen at most walk in with several boxes. I could tell from the smell alone that there were fresh baked pastries inside. He chatted with the receptionist who gave him a well-worn pass without even bothering to ask him why he was there. Interest peaked, I inquired as to the nature of the boy's visit.**_

 _ **The boy, one Harry Potter, regularly comes to the precinct at least once a week to deliver fresh baked treats for the police working at the Special Victims Unit. Sometimes he even comes in the company of a pair of red-haired twins.**_

 _ **When I finally gained access to the precinct to get information on a case, I discovered that the atmosphere was not only relaxed, but highly productive. The police were finding new leads, and there wasn't a single desk in the office that didn't have a hot cupcake or muffin that had been delivered moments earlier.**_

 _ **Further inquiry revealed that the teen who brought the baked goods was in fact the adopted younger brother of one of the senior detectives, Olivia Benson. You could see it in the eyes of every cop working that the teen's presence, not the food, had lifted their spirits and given new pride in their work.**_

 _ **One can only wonder if Olivia's adopted brother will follow her footsteps and join the police academy as well.**_

"How the hell did he find out about Harry?" asked Olivia.

"Didn't we chase out that reporter last week?" said Elliot.

Olivia vaguely remembered some snoopy reporter while they were working a difficult case, but not much else. She had been more interested in finding the rapist than remembering everyone who came in after Harry visited.

"Hey Liv, did you see the _Times_ this morning?"

"Munch just handed me a copy."

"Must have been a slow week," said Elliot.

He was surprised the _Times_ had bothered to write about the fact Harry delivered baked goods once a week. Though the fact that after his visits everyone generally went straight for the boxes wasn't any real secret.

Olivia thought nothing of the article until she got home. Apparently some of Harry's classmates had seen the article as well.

He honestly had no idea she had adopted him as her little brother.

"Special Victims Unit golden boy?" he said with amusement.

"It was a slow week," replied Olivia.

"Apparently very slow. Someone actually called the house asking for an interview," said Harry.

Olivia blinked.

"What did you tell them?"

"Not without my sister present, though I would have preferred to find that out from you and not by accident," said Harry.

Olivia felt a sting. She knew Harry preferred honesty above all else, and he probably didn't like the fact she had kept this from him. In all honesty she forgot about it.

"Petunia signed the papers and sent them back almost immediately. I'm guessing it was something she had wanted to do for a long time, but she never had anyone willing or able to take you in," said Olivia, before she went to her room where she kept most of her files.

The boys all knew that her room was off limits because she kept everything from her spare gun to her case files from work in there...they respected her privacy and she left their rooms up to them provided they didn't give her a reason to look through them. According to Harry that piece of trust was the main reason why the twins honestly respected her as the adult in the house and actually listened to her.

She brought out a letter.

Harry read it in silence. His eyebrows went up and she could see a myriad of emotions flicker in his eyes.

Olivia knew Harry had some issues with his maternal aunt and her family. She had gotten bits and pieces out of him, but anyone who made a child sleep in a cupboard for ten years couldn't possibly be a good parent. Making him go to therapy with Huang had helped him get through some of his anger issues, but he would always try to avoid the topic of his childhood if he could help it.

Finding out he could have had a normal childhood if not for someone forcing the Dursleys to take him in was a nasty shock. Petunia had apologized for the way he had been treated, but they had been forced to raise him despite the fact they didn't want to and neither of the adults wanted anything to do with magic.

Olivia hugged her little brother, knowing he had a rough day. Finding out that his 'aunt' had wanted to give him to someone but had been forced to keep him had been a nasty shock. At least he knew she cared.

* * *

The ripple effect of the article could be felt for weeks. For one thing Harry kept having to deal with a large amount of clingy females. He thought he had gotten rid of them when he left England. Then there were the idiots who thought he used his baked goods to get information on cases.

It got to the point where Harry was almost ready to set the twins loose. He hated attention he didn't deserve. He just didn't think the reporters had done anything to deserve the twins being set on them.

Especially since he was pretty much the only 'civilian' who was allowed to roam the precinct without being told to leave during big cases.

The cops knew he had no interest in their cases unless they asked his opinion, and that he genuinely _did_ appreciate the work they did. Sometimes he even delivered muffins and cupcakes to the district attorney's office after a bad case. Of course Olivia had to be the one who told Casey who the mystery baker was.

Sometimes the off-duty officers even took him out to eat after their shift, where they generally regaled him with tales of their old cases. It was usually the ones that didn't have any families, or were estranged from them because their wives or husbands didn't like the type of work they did. The fact Harry could listen to them and actually asked intelligent questions was a novelty to them. That he respected them and treated them like humans was one of the main reasons he was always welcome in the precinct.

There was, however, a small catch. One that Olivia kept to herself, because she was well aware that Huang had only informed her of the issue because he had tricked Harry into letting him divulge the information.

Harry was a borderline sociopath. One that was only safe to be around in stable home environments.

Huang had, during the course of Harry's sessions, noticed a disturbing trend in Harry's responses while he was working on the Chinese puzzles. Some of his answers generally indicated a lack of empathy when it came to human life. Further probing told Huang that Harry was very close to being a borderline sociopath, one that wouldn't drag out a kill.

If Olivia hadn't taken him in when she did, the odds of Harry becoming very dangerous to the general public were extremely high.

However, there was some good news. Because of therapy and a stable home environment where he wasn't expected to shoulder the responsibility of an adult (Huang had a _really_ low opinion of Harry's old school teachers) he had a buffer.

So long as no one threatened those close to him or tried to force him back into the unstable place he had previously existed, the odds of him going on a killing spree dropped like a stone.

Which meant that keeping him away from England and that school was critical to keeping him from snapping.

Another point in his favor was that he didn't _actively_ seek out new information on Olivia's cases involving murder, and he generally avoided the spotlight if he could. His first instinct was to prank the living hell out of someone, not kill or harm.

Case in point, when he was being bullied after first moving to New York. After a month Harry finally had enough and started pranking them relentlessly. Minor things no one could readily pinpoint to him as the culprit...yet when they confronted him he had this dark aura suggesting that they were better off to leave well enough alone.

After that they avoided him like the plague, and a good chunk of their other victims.

* * *

Harry was about to start breakfast when he heard a yelp from the upstairs bedroom where the twins were sleeping in. From the sound of it they had just found something surprising. Today was one of the days they slept in the shop, since tomorrow was the weekend.

"Harry, have you read the news?" asked Fred, having pretty much apparated straight to the kitchen.

He took one look at the paper and glared.

"You know I don't read that trashy _Prophet_ since I had to deal with Skeeter!"

"It's not just the Prophet. It's also in the Quibbler," said George, having also come straight to the kitchen.

Harry read the Quibbler. He found their articles hilarious.

However what he was reading at the moment sure wasn't.

 _Dark Lord returns! Fight in the Department of Mysteries leaves two dead and five injured! Prophecy Hall destroyed!_

"What...what is this?"

"Voldemort made a bid for the 'weapon' which is actually a prophecy about the two of you. The gist of which is that neither of you will 'live as long as the other survives'. He knew about the first half, but apparently never learned the rest of it from his spy. The Order was guarding it, trying to keep it safe from him but I had Tonks, our cousin, leave a surprise in the event he tried to make a move for it," said Sirius.

"...You know I've actually forgotten that you were more than just a dog," said Harry. Outside the magical alleys Sirius generally stayed as Padfoot. He really didn't want to deal with Olivia's reaction to a grown man sharing their house, let alone snoring on Harry's bed at night.

Sirius smiled, but it was a tired one.

"In any case we'll have to step up your training and you'll have to start carrying your gear."

Harry grimaced. He was actually an unofficial member of the Sparkies, but he preferred not to get involved except when cases called for someone younger and not technically _old_ enough to be part of the American's version of the Aurors. Most of the time he went out at night involved cases where he went undercover for them.

His 'gear' consisted of a plastic badge, a gun made entirely out of wood, a bag for evidence and a copy of the magical version of the Miranda Rights.

In order to be able to use the gun, he had to recite a simple oath while putting his right thumb on a little shield that was at the bottom of the plastic badge. If it accepted his oath not to use magic to commit crimes while working as a 'Junior Sparkie', then the shield would change color from silver to the same gold color Olivia's badge was.

The color change would allow him to use the wooden gun, which was actually wand wood that had been whittled into the shape of a gun with the core inside, to cast spells without fear of arrest. It would deactivate if he did something that was considered 'illegal'. Basically if he ever cast the Unforgiveables then it wouldn't function as a wand.

The bag was charmed to hold a complete kit to collect evidence and it was keyed to Harry specifically. Only he could remove or add anything to it, and most people wouldn't notice it unless he pointed it out. He generally kept his 'gun' and badge inside.

However Harry hated having to carry it around. It meant he expected trouble to happen.

Today they were in the shop that Sirius kept going while the twins went to regular high school. Being around muggles and learning about the real world was a novelty to them, so they wanted to enjoy it as much as possible.

Not like they needed a high school degree, considering they owned a shop already.

"You do realize this means we'll have to step up your training too, right?" said Sirius to the twins.

"Yeah, yeah," said Fred.

"This is such a pain in the ass though," said George.

Fred and George had decided to undergo a different sort of training. When they became animagi, they turned into a pair of identical twin foxes with multiple tails.

Specifically that of the Japanese Kitsune, who were notorious for playing tricks.

The twins hadn't been spending all their time at the shop or learning about the other side of the world. They had been training for just such an occasion, despite how their mother tried to stop them.

They had become the Twin Guardian Foxes. At least, that was their nickname among the Sparkies. Their job was to act as Harry's guards while he was undercover, and they took it seriously. Sirius and the older members of the Sparkies trained them personally just for this sort of event.

If Harry were ever forced back to England, then it was up to the twins to retrieve him and avoid the darker half of his personality from waking up and going on a killing spree.

A test of Harry's magic revealed that while his baseline personality was a kind charismatic boy who wormed his way into the hearts of even the most lost personality (like an old cop who worked to solve the particularly unpleasant cases like the SVU), his other side was much more dangerous.

They didn't know if it was a result of carrying Riddle's soul since that night, or if was because of Dumbledore's actions leaving him with his aunt and putting too much pressure on an already unstable mind.

Either way when Harry snapped, he was an unstoppable juggernaut of magical power. His magic would respond to his will without a second's hesitation, with or without a focus. As one Sparkie put it after seeing it in action...he quite literally became a weapon, one without any morals or conscience except when his two anchors were around to head him off.

Fred and George were the only ones who could get close to him while he was in that state of mind, as he didn't register them as 'enemies'.

It was a sad state of mind to be in, as a Legilmency probe revealed that Harry had no conscious thought of his own while he was like that. So the twins did everything in their power to keep him from flipping that particular switch.

They just hoped that it never came to that. Or that the Ministry wouldn't do something monumentally stupid like force Harry to fight Voldemort again.


	7. Chapter 7

_**Okay, some of you are complaining I made Harry a " borderline**_ _ **" sociopath. I would like to point out a few facts. One, Harry was raised in an environment that didn't exactly teach him that it WASN'T okay to hurt others, and Hogwarts certainly didn't help much. Two, I have yet to fully address the Horcrux issue, though Olivia is not aware of this problem as of yet and Harry only knows Voldemort left SOMETHING behind in that scar of his. Three, the requirements for him to go all 'magical berserker' are pretty specific, and it shuts down once he's around certain people, I/E Sirius, Olivia, Elliot, and the twins.**_

 _ **Also, Huang's diagnosis was slightly off because A, he doesn't know Harry was partially channeling Voldemort at the time, and B, he's a muggle and doesn't know about magic and the fact they have more ways to heal people.**_

 _ **I hope this clears that up, but I will be addressing this eventually.**_

 _ **Oh, and for those who thought I might pair Sirius with Olivia... I've considered that, but I don't see Olivia taking the fact that a GROWN MAN with the mental maturity of a horny teenager sleeping in her brother's room very well, especially considering her job.**_

* * *

For the most part, things didn't really change. However Harry still carried his bag with him everywhere around his neck. It was a necessary evil that he had to put up with in order to get any freedom. He also increased his training with Sirius and the Sparkies, as did the twins.

They tried to keep it from Olivia, but she wasn't a detective for nothing. She knew something was up.

"Alright you three, what exactly is going on? You've been acting off for a month now," said Olivia, blocking the door.

The twins looked at each other. They would wait for Harry's queue when it came to his big sister.

Harry took one look at Olivia's expression, sighed, then brought out the same Quibbler that told them what happened in England.

She read the article, then looked at the three of them.

"What does this have to do with you three?"

"The terrorist the article mentioned is the same one that killed my parents. I'd rather train hard now and not have to use it, then need the skills and not have it. It's like a knife," said Harry.

A knife could be used for more than killing people. It was a tool that could be used for good, like cutting strips of bandage off or freeing someone from a rope. Elliot had even given him his old Marine-issue knife because his wife didn't want it in the house and he trusted Harry not to use it on people. Harry kept it with his 'gun'.

"So you're preparing in the event he comes after you?"

"I don't want to fight him. Unfortunately the English Ministry isn't as reasonable. If they ever found out where I lived I have little doubt they would try to drag me back all because I 'killed' him before. And there's supposedly a prophecy stating I'm the only one who can end him."

"Like that Greek play you showed me before. Oedipus Rex?"

Harry nodded. Finding out there was a prophecy involved only made him emphasize with Oedipus even more. He really didn't want to become the protagonist of his own self-fulfilling prophecy, no matter what the English had to say about it.

"So I've been training right after basketball practice and when I'm not doing some of my other hobbies," said Harry.

"You honestly expect them to come after you and drag you back?" said Olivia, looking at him. There mere fact she wasn't dismissing it was a big part of why the twins respected her more than they did their own mother.

"Yeah. The Ministry is full of sheep. They once arrested a good friend of mine just to be seen doing something when there was a monster attacking the school, and the next year they put the same monsters that guarded their worst prison around the place just because of an escaped prisoner instead of their cops. So I don't trust them as far as I could throw them without magic when it comes to common sense."

Olivia believed him after hearing about the screw-ups in England. Not to mention the papers the twins kept leaving out without thinking about it called the _Daily Prophet_ , which had slandered her brother until recently. From what they told her, it was controlled by the Ministry. And the Minister didn't like the fact Harry was being used as the 'spokesperson' for people claiming the terrorist was back. So he used his connections to try and discredit him, despite the fact Harry had never given any interviews and it was all being done by his former headmaster.

It was a pity there weren't any libel or slander laws in the magical UK, or she would sue them for it.

Still, the fact was that they fully expected the magicals in England to try and drag Harry back to kill. And that was something she would like to avoid.

"Some of the older cops go to one of the gyms and practice hand-to-hand combat on their days off. I'll see about getting you a membership," said Olivia finally.

"Does this mean I won't be able to go to Aikido practice?"

"The gym also has jujitsu, kenpo and tae kwon do lessons. Since a lot of off duty cops go there they asked for some variety. If you really impress them they might even teach you some kali, which is an advanced form of the night stick practices that some of the younger officers use."

Harry had a determined look on his face. The more he learned how to fight, the better off he would be later.

Ironically his magic training didn't consist of actually fighting, but rather repairing the damage done. He was pretty much a battlefield medic, since he was already dangerous enough magical fighting.

In the words of Sirius, the ones who are often the most devastating in a fight are the same ones who patch you up to begin with! Mostly because they knew the quickest way to take an opponent apart.

* * *

"Happy birthday Harry," said Olivia.

It was also a party to celebrate the fact Harry had gotten his driver's license. The twins already had theirs, but like Harry they mostly used it as ID. Driving in New York wasn't exactly practical, and most people rode bikes instead because it was easier to get around.

Still, it was a good thing to have even if they didn't drive.

Instead of having a small party, they had gone to a restaurant Munch recommended, which wasn't very expensive. Harry was actually surprised to find most of the cops in SVU that he brought food for every week there at the restaurant.

"Thanks. You know I'd feel genuinely sorry for any criminals that tried something around this block," said Harry.

"Why?" asked Elliot.

"With this many off-duty cops around here, they'd be screwed. Though it would be interesting seeing how you'd explain who actually arrested them to Cragen," said Harry.

Fred and George imagined that scenario and snickered. He wasn't wrong.

That was when Harry noticed who came in next.

"I stand corrected. It would be interesting to see how he explained to the higher ups who arrested any criminal stupid enough to come within a block of this place."

Cragen had just shown up.

"So you got any special plans for your birthday?" asked Elliot.

"Well the twins and I were thinking of seeing that new Sherlock Holmes movie next week. But that's pretty much the only thing interesting we have going on, outside of me playing reserve again on the basketball team," said Harry.

Harry had no idea the twins fully planned to ambush him and take him to a popular water park on Saturday as a surprise. It was hot in the summer, so water parks were a great way to cool off.

Harry had a nice birthday for once. It wasn't chaotic, but he realized he had made more friends than he though in New York. Particularly among the cops. Even some of the Sparkies were there, trading stories with Olivia.

It was when they were leaving the restaurant that Harry's joke came true though. Someone was trying to break into a car with a thin piece of metal, and the cops leaving saw him.

As Harry predicted, it was a bit confusing as to who the arresting officer would be, but the twins thought it was hilarious because of the expression on the robber's face.

"You're kidding me! How shitty is my luck that a bunch of cops happen to be on the same block as me?!" complained the robber.

"Pretty bad apparently, that the cops all decided to come eat at the same restaurant on the same night you decide to jack a car. Just be glad you weren't actually doing anything that would land you in their precinct. He might not have been so nice when he cuffed you," said Harry cheerfully. Elliot was the one who cuffed the robber.

"Oh yeah? Then who should I sue for police brutality?"

"Special Victims Unit. Of course if you tried I could always claim to have been the one to kick your ass," said Harry a little too cheerfully.

The robber focused on his face.

"Shit. You're that golden boy kid the paper went on about, aren't you?"

"Yup."

Harry actually enjoyed his birthday, because he got dinner and the fun show of a hapless robber just happening to steal a car right after he ate. The look on his face was hilarious.

* * *

"Happy birthday pup," said Sirius.

"You're a day late. And you missed a funny show last night."

"How so?"

"Someone tried to steal a car when we left the restaurant last night, and he had the unenviable position of having twenty off-duty cops and their sergeant coming out at the worst possible time."

Sirius laughed. That did sound hilarious.

"So what exactly is in the box?"

"Open it up and see."

Harry did, wondering if he should be worried with how the box was squirming. Instead he found himself looking at a large puppy.

"What breed is it?"

"Rottweiler. Biggest one in the litter."

The puppy barked, and licked him in the face.

"I would have gotten you a car, but let's face it, you wouldn't have anywhere to drive to," said Sirius.

"What about a motorcycle?" said Harry, joking.

"And have your sister yell at me because you drove it without a license?"

Olivia was hot, in his mind, but a bit too intense. Besides, he wasn't sure he wanted to be on the wrong side of her gun once she found out he was the dog that often slept in Harry's room.

"So what are you going to name your new furry friend?"

"Well I was watching a John Wayne movie with one of my classmates the other day called _Hondo_. So why not Hondo?"

The newly named Hondo barked, before stumbling on his gangly legs. He was undeniably cute, and Harry had been thinking of getting a dog anyway.

Padfoot was good, but he was extremely lazy, as Olivia could attest.

When Harry showed Hondo to Olivia, she was somewhat glad. She only asked that he teach the dog that when she said off, he got off the couch. Padfoot would sometimes just roll over to another spot on the couch when Olivia went to watch TV instead of getting up. Or he would get up, only to promptly take a spot on one of the chairs. It irritated her.

And she would swear that the dog occasionally swiped the remote and changed the channel on her.

(Sirius did, partly because it was funny but mostly because he had a different opinion on what to watch. And that wasn't counting the number of times Harry used a spell mostly created to change the channel when the remote was lost on her.)

Either way his tenure on Harry's bed at night was now officially taken over by Hondo. He preferred sleeping in the shop anyway.

* * *

"Just so we're clear here, if you're trying to take me to another damn rave like Kathleen did I am soooo going to hex the crap out of you when we get home."

"Nah, too noisy for our tastes. And have you heard what they call music?" said George.

"Instead we're just going to deal with our favorite little brother and do a little friendly abducting. If it's any consolation we also got Kathleen to come with her friends."

"Her older friends?" said Harry, raising an eyebrow in amusement.

"Hey, her friends are pretty damn hot," said George in their defense. Besides, Harry needed a reason to loosen up.

One look at the teenaged girls in skimpy bikinis, and suddenly Harry was perfectly fine with being kidnapped by the twins.

"Hey Harry," said Kathleen.

"Hey. Still going out to parties?"

"You still a bookworm?" countered Kathleen. She still hadn't forgotten that rave where he busted her to her dad. But in his defense at least she hadn't gotten arrested. "I heard you got your license."

"Yeah but I can't even drive in New York. I mostly use it for ID."

"Fair enough."

Harry looked Kathleen in the eye. Knowing her she was still acting out by drinking, partying and generally making Elliot worry about her. He sighed.

"Look, why don't we quit beating around the bush. We both know you're still going out partying and drinking despite not being of age, and odds are one day you might end up having to drive home while drunk."

"What are you getting at?"

"If you ever feel too drunk to drive but don't want to leave your car or friends home, call me and I'll be there to drive you home. The last thing I want on my conscience is knowing I could have been your designated driver and I let you drive while drunk off your ass and got killed. I won't exactly approve of it, but I won't rat you out to your dad or let you get arrested for it," said Harry.

Kathleen stared, before realizing he was being entirely serious about his offer.

"What's the catch?"

"You and your friends will likely have to put up with a bike in the car, seeing as how I don't own one," said Harry evenly.

She held out her hand.

"You have a deal."

"Now, why don't we go have some fun for once?" said Harry grinning.

He may or may not have abused the hell out his apparition ability. Fortunately he wasn't the first one, because there were spots they could discreetly teleport to and get a jump on the lines on the slides.


	8. Chapter 8

It was three in the morning. He had only gotten an hour's worth of sleep. And someone was ringing him. One look at the number had him glaring at it.

Kathleen. She must have gotten too drunk while partying and decided he was a better option than her dad.

Harry groaned, went to the kitchen and grabbed a large amount of hot tea with enough sugar to keep him awake, then took his bike out and apparated to the first corner near where she said she was. He rode two blocks before he found them, and a quick diagnostic charm revealed two of her friends were on the very border of suffering from alcohol poisoning.

Kathleen blinked, her eyes bloodshot.

"How'd you get here so fast?"

"I rode. How many am I taking home?" he asked.

"About six," she said.

"Let me tie up my bike and I'll drive," sighed Harry. A quick sticking charm took care of that, and he made very sure to leave the windows open. Kathleen sat in the passenger seat, and her friends all took window seats, except for two that were already passed out in the middle.

He was dropping her off at the first hospital he could find and hitting the other three with a sticking charm so they didn't try to leave the car. He was also going to explain to their parents where they had been and what they had been doing, so they got the maximum punishment out of drinking.

Hangovers were only really effective with your parents yelling at you and deliberately making your morning miserable, as Kathleen discovered.

Harry drove safely, and aside from the quick stop to the hospital explaining that two of six girls had drunk too much and might suffer from poisoning, he took them all home and even walked them to their doors. They were too drunk to care what he was telling their parents.

The mothers and fathers who opened the door were irritated, but not at Harry. The fact he had offered to drive them home, but neglected to mention he would be telling their parents what they had been doing was something the adults appreciated.

They were almost to her home when Harry got pulled over because Kathleen had the worst timing. She threw up outside the window right as they were passing by an unmarked police car.

"If we're arrested you're paying for the ticket," he told her.

Harry slowed down and parked the car while grabbing his license and the registration.

The cop walked up with a flashlight, and Harry knew if he didn't have a good explanation he would definitely get a ticket, because the man clearly had a bad night already.

"License and registration?"

Harry handed them over.

"Says here the owner is a Kathleen Stabler."

"She's the one who threw up out the window," supplied Harry.

"Have you been drinking tonight?"

"No sir. I told my friend to call me if she went out partying again and was too drunk to drive, since I would rather be woken up at three in the morning than find out she got killed for being an idiot. I've already had to drop off two of her friends at the hospital because of alcohol poisoning, and their parents weren't too pleased they had been out so late," said Harry honestly.

The cop looked at him in the eye, as if trying to see if he was lying.

"Mind breathing into this?" he said, pulling out a portable breathalyzer.

Harry did, and when it came up negative the cop let him go. Harry couldn't help a parting shot though.

"If it's any consolation, her dad's a cop too, and he's liable to give her a long, loud lecture about drinking when she gets up in the morning," said Harry. The cop walked away laughing.

It took him twenty minutes to reach Kathleen's house, and when he did he texted Elliot from the driveway so he would know his daughter had been out.

Elliot woke up, saw the text and then went to the front door and found Harry helping Kathleen up the stairs since she was staggering around.

"What happened?"

"I told her to call me if she went out and got drunk again. I'd rather not attend her funeral, thank you, even if I did get pulled over because she threw up outside the window in front of an unmarked cop car. Fortunately they let me off since I wasn't drinking," said Harry.

Thank magic today was a Saturday. Normally he got up to watch the morning cartoons with the twins, but today he was more likely to sleep in.

Elliot helped maneuver Kathleen into her bed. She would get a lecture in the morning once the hangover kicked in.

"So why'd you wake me up instead of just dropping her off?"

"And risk getting shot because you heard someone in the house when everyone is _supposed_ to be asleep? Besides, I woke up the parents of her friends that were with her too and explained to them where their daughters had been all night. I told her I would drive her home...I never said a word about not busting her," said Harry grinning evilly.

Elliot laughed. Harry was a good kid, but that didn't mean he didn't have a mischievous side. And when he saw the bike on top of the car he helped Harry put it in the garage and let him sleep in the guest room until morning, when he would head into work. Considering Harry lived three blocks from the precinct that meant he could drop him off.

* * *

Kathleen was in her own personal hell. And Harry, damn him, was laughing at her while eating scrambled eggs. Eggs her dad made deliberately because Harry told him she had been drinking again.

"Why are you even here anyway?"

"No way am I riding my bike back home at four in the morning after driving you home. Your dad let me sleep in the guest room so he could drop me off in the morning," said Harry cheekily.

Olivia would probably be surprised by him showing up, considering he slept in the shop on weekends so he could get a jump on work. Then again, maybe not considering Elliot had likely called her already.

Unlike Kathleen, Harry didn't have a set curfew considering Olivia trusted him and he went to bed early anyway.

Elliot dropped him off at the precinct, and Harry made his way to the house. Olivia was up and making breakfast, though she blinked when she saw him walk in.

"You're home early. Normally you're at the shop on weekends unless you have a game."

"Had to drive Kathleen home at three in the morning, so Elliot dropped me off. Figured I'd at least get some tea before apparating back to work," said Harry. Which consisted of him cooking breakfast for the other three, since Sirius was banned from the kitchen and the twins had no idea how to cook.

"Wait. You drove Kathleen home last night?"

"She and her friends were too wasted to drive, and I told her I would come and do it as long as she called me. She just chose a particularly bad time to call, so in revenge I woke Elliot up and told him and the parents of her six friends where they had been all night. I even got pulled over because she threw up right as we were passing an unmarked car," said Harry.

"You didn't get a ticket did you?" asked Olivia.

"I wasn't drinking, I was obeying all the rules of the road, and the only reason they stopped us was because she was clearly intoxicated. I don't think the cop even noticed the badge you gave me when a few months after I started living here in my wallet."

People with cops in the close family, like say, their mother or father, were sometimes given courtesy shields with the parents number and precinct on it. Olivia had given Harry one in the event he ended up in hot water or in the wrong place at the wrong time so he wouldn't accidentally be arrested. He had never used it once since moving to New York. He generally forgot he even _had_ it in his wallet.

Kathleen had one as well, but she wasn't exactly happy with her dad most days because he was often away from home.

"So what exactly happened?"

"Kathleen woke me up at three, I grabbed my bike and apparated about a block or so from where she was and made her think I rode there. I drove her and three girls back to wherever they lived and dropped two at the first decent hospital I could find because they was one drink away from alcohol poisoning. Once I was sure they would call their parents to come pick her up, I took the rest home and helped Elliot bring Kathleen in where I slept in the guest room until morning."

With any other teenager, Olivia would have trouble believing. With Harry, she fully believed him because nothing else would get him out of the house at three in the morning when he had been previously sleeping outside of an emergency. He _liked_ his sleep. And he was legally allowed to drive, but he preferred not to because he hated it.

"So what are your plans for the weekend?"

"Feed the beasts in the shop since they can't cook, work until it's time for practice, then head back and sleep until my Sunday shift. Oh, and possibly visit Elliot's house again."

"Why?"

"I sorta offered to babysit the younger kids and insure Kathleen didn't sneak out despite being grounded for two months. Elliot said he didn't mind if I stole the distributor cap from the spare car, so long as I left it somewhere he could find it later."

Olivia grinned. Harry was surprisingly good with the younger kids...probably because that was roughly the same mental age as his uncle/godfather Sirius (she still wasn't aware he was Padfoot or that he had slept in Harry's room for two months) and the twins.

* * *

Elliot picked Harry up from school a week later. He had agreed to babysit so Elliot and his wife Kathy could have a proper date night for the first time in years. And with Kathleen in major trouble, she had to help whether she wanted to or not.

And she didn't want to, but Harry cast a few notice-me-not charms on her electronics so she couldn't find them to call her friends. And he had hidden the phones.

Harry was even armed with some toys that were sure to drive Kathleen up the wall. Elliot was just glad Harry planned to take them with him or hide them when they got back. Almost all the toys were noisy and extremely headache inducing for parents.

Harry on the other hand came prepared. He had a pair of earplugs that filtered out the noisy toys and let him hear everything else. He mostly hoped for a nice, _quiet_ evening.

Alas, Fate it seemed felt that Harry had spent long enough without something bad happening. And it would give Kathleen a new reason to appreciate her dad for what he did.

Harry was about to put the younger kids to bed when he heard the distinct sound of the glass breaking from the second floor. Kathleen knew better than to push her luck in concerns with her dad, and the rest of the kids were already asleep, or getting there. Besides, Kathleen was in her room with the door locked and headphones on.

He carefully pulled out his invisibility cloak and stalked downstairs.

That was when he heard the whispering.

" _Come on! Hurry up before the cop gets back!"_

" _Relax, the only ones here are the brats and if they can't call with the jammer up and the lines cut. Worse comes to worse we can just threaten them or use 'em as hostages! Remember, no names!"_

Harry's blood ran cold. Thieves had broken in, and worse had cut off the communication. And he couldn't exactly call for help because they would likely hear him.

Which left option three.

He slowly went up to Kathleen's room, unlocked it with a charm and quietly put his hand around her mouth.

"Kathleen, keep quiet and follow my lead. There's some people downstairs and they might come up if we make too much noise," hissed Harry.

Kathleen turned to ask him if he was joking, except that her headphones were off she could hear them as well.

"First we need to move the younger kids to another room. Are there any on this floor with a window that leads outside on something they could scale, or even to that treehouse out back?"

"The guest room you stayed in. It has a lock and the roof extends enough that I could hand them over to you," said Kathleen. She had always thought that treehouse was stupid once she turned fourteen, but now she couldn't wait to get into it. At least Harry had an idea of what to do.

"First we get the younger kids. Keep them as quiet as possible. Then we'll jam the locks on the guest bedroom and barricade it while we get everyone into the tree house."

Kathleen nodded, too scared of intruders in her home to argue. She was as quiet as she could be picking up her siblings and moving them into the guest bedroom. Harry made sure that the intruders downstairs didn't notice them by discreetly using tripping hexes and charms to tie their shoelaces together to cover the noise. They were too busy cursing their partner's clumsiness to notice that Kathleen had moved the kids.

Once they finished with that, Harry carefully moved the little ones into the tree fort Elliot had built for Kathleen when she was eight. He kept it maintained, but mostly it sat disused.

The moment she was inside with the still sleepy runts, Harry did something devious.

He used a spell the Sparkies used when they wanted to trap enemies in the house without actually locking anything. It turned a house into a death trap.

Or a cage, in this instance.

One long phrase in olde English, and the house became impenetrable from the inside out. Literally. They couldn't break a window to escape even if they wanted to, unless one of them was a wizard and knew the counter spell.

Harry wasn't finished though.

With the intruders trapped inside (not that they knew it just yet), that meant he might have to deal with the getaway driver or their extra accomplices.

"Harry?" Kathleen called quietly.

"Shhh. I have to make sure they didn't leave anyone outside, but then we can try to call for help," said Harry, putting his finger to his mouth. Kathleen nodded. "Can you keep them calm until I take care of the others?"

"Yeah. Be careful!"

Harry gave her a calm grin, before easily landing like a cat.

He slipped into the dark of the night and went looking for a van out of place.

He found it a block away, with the driver not even paying attention! He took out the knife Elliot gave him and slashed all four tires in quick succession. Then he stuffed a decent sized rock into the exhaust pipe, making it impossible to work.

He then hit the driver with a stunner, making it look like he fell asleep. A quick charm to see if anyone was inside, and he fried the electronics.

He quickly made his way back to the tree house where Kathleen was waiting.

She was still freaked, but once he got there she calmed down because she had long figured out Harry always kept a cool head in a crisis.

Harry pulled out his cell phone, and since the jammer was now fried he had a signal.

And the first person he called was Elliot, quickly followed by Olivia to let her know what was going on.

About two seconds after he called them both, he heard one of the thieves trip on a toy he had brought over, setting it off and making a racket. The thief cursed and went to see if he had woken any of the kids, only to realize that they weren't there. It was pretty clear that they had escaped, which was when he raised the alarm to the others.

By the time they figured out the doors and windows were jammed, Elliot and Olivia had called in the cavalry. Several cops surrounded the house, and it wasn't until Elliot and Kathy (with Olivia arriving five minutes after them) that Harry and Kathleen came out of the treehouse.

Kathleen was quick to hug her father in relief while Olivia helped Harry bring the younger kids down. They were still sleepy, as Kathleen and Harry hadn't told them anything in order to avoid them making a scene.

"Their driver is about a block away. Look for the knifed tires," said Harry.

"What happened?" asked Elliot.

"I was putting them to sleep when I heard something downstairs. I came down a few steps and listened, and I realized that they knew there was a cop here. I think they had cased the place, but weren't expecting me to be here as well. I made sure Kathleen and the others were out of the house and that the driver couldn't go anywhere before I called you. They had a signal jammer in the van and they cut the phone lines."

Elliot was looking over his kids with a professional eye. Aside from Kathleen being shaken up, the younger ones were fine, if a bit sleepy.

Until they had the placed looked over and a new security system put in (seeing as how the one Elliot had in place was compromised), Olivia offered to let them crash at her house for a while. If necessary Harry could sleep at the shop, which was where the twins lived full time since turning 18.

However, it was pretty clear Kathleen was shaken up.

Which was why Harry was going to see if he couldn't get the same 'Pass' Olivia had to know about magic so he could have wards placed around Elliot's home to keep this from happening twice.


	9. Chapter 9

Elliot took the news about magic better than Harry could have hoped. Finding out Olivia's brother was a wizard explained quite a bit about a few oddities he had noticed.

Learning that he was now considered "exempt" from having his memory erased in the event they had to deal with a magical cross-jurisdiction crime was a nice bonus...and he finally found out where their new standard issue bullets came from.

Kathy was just glad this new information came with the chance to get magical wards to deter thieves. They were having three separate safe rooms made. One on both floors and the third being the tree house.

Let it never be said Elliot wasn't over-cautious about his family's safety. He was just glad Harry had kept calm and gotten his family out before they were used as hostages.

In the end Harry didn't have to sleep in the shop. They had enough room...barely. The younger kids loved having the bunk beds the twins left behind, the spare room was made up for Elliot and his wife, and the attic was more than big enough for Harry to sleep while Kathleen borrowed his room.

He was used to a small boot cupboard under the stairs. He could handle a musty old attic which they didn't really mess with outside of cleaning out the cobwebs and using it for storage. He could live with sleeping on an air mattress for a few days.

Kathleen yawned. Ever since that break in she had been having trouble sleeping, even if her dad's partner let them stay at her house which was so close to his precinct that help was quite literally a few minutes walk away. Plus they were having magical wards added to prevent any future break ins.

And wasn't that a kick in the teeth. Harry was a wizard and he could do honest-to-god magic! He initially worried about the whole religious dislike of magic, but to be honest she had trouble seeing him as a devil-worshiping witch like the Bible claimed.

From what Harry said, the Church at some point grew angry that the magicals were able to make them in power, so they decided to declare them evil...and tired of being treated like second-class citizens by the magicals, those without the gift turned on them and began to prosecute them, driving them to ground.

As a result, the whole 'Do not suffer a witch to live' bit was an additive that had been slipped in before any rational member could notice the extra text.

Besides, he was too damn nice for her to believe he was evil.

Mischievous and slightly vindictive, but not evil.

Harry handed her a mug of hot tea. It was cool enough to drink, but it didn't have any sugar as she quickly found out.

He woke up before anyone else, so he generally made the breakfast unless he was at the shop or sleeping in.

With the coffee brewing, the smell of caffeine brought her dad downstairs, with Olivia not soon after. It was no exaggeration that most of the SVU had gotten addicted to the food Harry brought in each week.

Though he did finally come clean about technically _dosing_ it half the time. Nothing too serious, but it had proven invaluable during some pretty nasty cases.

A simple calming draught, so the detectives could think with a clear head and make rational decisions. He didn't do it during missing child cases though.

Though unknown to Olivia, he had helped discreetly on a few of them.

Ironically enough Harry's animagus form was a dog commonly used by K-9 cops to sniff out a suspect. Sirius thought he would be a bloodhound with how often he used his nose, but he became a German Sheppard instead.

His nose was still pretty damn strong though, and it gave him something else to bond over with his uncle.

As one by one the others in the house began to filter down to the kitchen, the food made it to the table. Since Elliot and his family were Catholic, Olivia and Harry waited until they said the blessing before anyone ate.

Kathy would drop the younger kids off while Kathleen and Harry made their own way to school. Harry could at least go half-way, considering his school was close enough for him to bike and driving would only be slower in the long run.

There was a reason why Olivia didn't bother getting a car. If they needed one it was usually to go out of town.

As it was they left early enough that Harry could walk Kathleen to school and still be in time for first bell.

"Oh my god girl, he is _hot_!"

"And you're seriously living in his house?"

Kathleen had never been more embarrassed in her life. Sure Harry was a nice guy, but she didn't know if she was his type.

He was what many of the girls in her school would call a very good catch. Especially since he didn't judge her because of the fact that she was a bit wild. He was also calm in a dangerous situation...just look at how easily he handled the fact there were thieves in her house when he was only babysitting! He got them out and dealt with the thieves, all without once loosing his cool edge.

So yes, if asked by her friends she was attracted to him. Who wouldn't be, straight or gay? But whether he liked her back was something she was unsure about, and until she was she wasn't going to push her luck and lose out on the friendship they had.

"So if you're not going to ask him out, can I?" asked one of her friends.

"I don't know. You'd have to get past his sister and those twins," said Kathleen without thinking about it. Was she actually _jealous_ of the idea that one of HER friends would ask Harry out?

"What does his sister do?"

"Remember that article a few weeks back about some teen who was really, really friendly with the department my dad's in?" asked Kathleen.

"Yeah?"

"Harry's the one they were talking about. My dad's partner is his sister."

The other girl winced, clearly remembering Kathleen's dad when he had a really bad case and got a little too overprotective.

One time he even _shadowed_ them while they went to the movies. Kathleen had been mortified, but it wasn't nearly as bad as the first time she went out on a date. What if Harry's sister was _worse?_

"But...he's still single right?" pressed another.

"I don't think he would even know what a date entails," said Kathleen. As far as she was aware Harry had never gone out on a date. The closest he had ever gotten was when the twins abducted him or they went to the movies.

Though Kathleen was a little skeptical about Harry's uncle Sirius.

When Sirius Black first moved to the States (under the disguise of Padfoot), he accepted the probation Harry put on him because of how angry he was at being practically ignored for the better part of the summer.

And part of that probation included mandatory visits to a magically-aware psychologist, which Dr. Grace happened to be. She was a good friend of Dr. Huang, and when it came time for Harry to slowly transition to talking about the nonsense Dumbledore put him through at Hogwarts, she accepted his case without question.

Thankfully she was willing to take on Sirius' case, mostly because she got permission from him to write a study on the effects of long-term dementor exposure and the positive aspects of an animagus form in combating them. Yes, the knowledge he was innocent had kept him sane the entire time, but the fact was that he could go for _days_ as Padfoot, who's concerns were eating, sleeping, and relieving himself. And not in that order. With such a simple mind the terror dementors inspired couldn't really take proper hold.

So being forced to undergo therapy really helped in the long run. Dr. Grace didn't judge him, didn't demand anything...she just let him get everything out. She even had a dummy he could send curses at, provided they A, were not illegal, and B, didn't do widespread damage.

He had no idea how much guilt he had been holding in until the fourth session. He would never fully grow up (long term mental trauma like he had gotten from the dementors assured that), but at least now he could reasonably pass for an adult.

Remus would probably be shocked...if they were still talking that is.

The werewolf seemed to think Harry was in the wrong for some reason because he wanted to be a _normal_ teenaged boy rather than follow Dumbledore. The same man who left Sirius to rot in prison for a crime the old goat damn well knew for a fact Sirius had never committed. Any chance of Dumbledore using Sirius to retrieve Harry went out the window after he realized how much happier Harry was living with Olivia.

Olivia. There was a bird Sirius wouldn't mind bedding if not for the fact Harry had essentially claimed her as an older sister, which was strictly no-no territory...and the fact she wasn't liable to react very well to the news that the lazy 'Padfoot' had been Sirius in animal form, sleeping on Harry's bed. Considering her job he felt it was safer not to try his luck.

Sirius could honestly say that this was the happiest he had seen his pup.

Harry had Olivia for emotional support and stability in his life...and he had Elliot's family so he could see what a _real_ family felt like. Elliot pretty much considered him a son by this point, either because he was Olivia's partner or because Harry seemed to treat him like the father figure he had lost out on. Sirius didn't mind being delegated to the 'Crazy Uncle' role.

At least he had a role in Harry's life, which was more than he could have said for his early years.

Harry was on the court. His stamina, agility and aim had vastly improved since he started playing basketball as a lark. Along with a pair of new glasses (contacts hurt his eyes for some reason), three full meals a day which didn't really include much junk food (seeing Dudley eat through an small town's worth of the stuff that could last a month turned him off the greasy foods), nutritional potions to counteract the lack of proper care in his early years (not to mention what Petunia, the Hogwarts house elves and Mrs. Weasley thought of as 'food') and actual physical activity that made use of more than his ability to stay balanced on a broom meant that he had shot up like a weed.

He was pushing closer to five foot eleven inches, and he had to deal with being a little clumsier than normal thanks to the fact his legs had grown.

Harry honestly didn't think of England anymore. He felt that part of his life should _stay_ buried rather than bother him.

He shot past the rival school's ace, making a perfect free-throw. The crowd went wild as he made the shot.

Up in the stands he could see Olivia, Elliot, and a good chunk of some of the off-duty officers cheering for him. It was ironic that he found more of a family with almost the entire department's worth of cops than he had back with the magicals. He was one of them despite not having a mundane badge or having the ability to arrest people in the mundane side of the world.

If Olivia knew he was an undercover operative for the Sparkies, she might have blown a gasket.

He saw the coach signaling those on the court to come in, he made a beeline for his water bottle. He eyed the cheerleaders with distaste.

Contrary to what Kathleen thought, he had been on a few dates before. A grand total of _five_ to be exact...and yes, Olivia made a production of the first one. She had multiple pictures and she even shared some with Sirius.

Thankfully his first date didn't end as disastrously as the 'date' he had at the Yule Ball.

Two of the cheerleaders had asked him out, and he had been a perfect gentleman...however they simply didn't click. So they stayed 'acquaintances' despite the fact they tried to date.

He kept his hopes up that college would be better. If he could make it into college.

When they went out to the court, Harry was given the order to play distraction while the regular members made up the points.

What he didn't know was that someone from a relatively small college had come to watch the game and possibly scope out the players. And he liked what he saw.

Up in the stands Olivia and Elliot cheered Harry on, as his distraction allowed his teammate to steal the ball and make another shot.

Harry managed to steal the ball from one of the other team and land the winning shot. He took the pats on the back from his teammates with ease. They had nothing on Hagrid.

And after the game they all went out for some pizza, which Harry had quickly become addicted to since he never had any before, and Olivia took a few weeks before she trusted Harry's cooking ability.

It was only two days later he heard about the college scouts looking for new talent. And that they were very interested in _him_.

Harry, being from an old line and rarely spending more than a couple hundred per week, didn't really _need_ a scholarship to get into college. However he had a few friends from the bad side of town that weren't exactly what people would think, especially since they came from bad families or living situations.

People who could only _hope_ for a scholarship to get out of where they came from.

So Harry made a list of the people he knew from that area, then compared it with Fin who had connections there.

If they got the scholarship on his recommendation, then he wanted to be sure they _deserved_ it. Asking Fin if he recognized any of the names from his time before SVU was a good way to confirm they were good people.

In the end he narrowed it down to two, which was better than the four he had earlier.

He would make his recommendations to the college scouts and let them sort it out.

Harry was glad to hear both of his friends won the scholarship after making his recommendations...even if they had to cut the initial one in half.

It also didn't hurt he had agreed to donate twenty grand to the college in question if the tried to help both of them out...or the fact he had done his research into who would deserve it.

Besides...he rather liked that college anyway, so they would be getting three good players for the price of one scholarship and a rather generous donation.

But in the meantime, his order had finally come in.

Olivia noticed a long, thin package on the step that morning and brought it in. It had Harry's name on it, but it was the origin that had her a bit surprised.

Why had he ordered something direct from Japan of all places?

"It came in! Finally!"

Elliot and his family had moved out about two weeks after the incident, so he could open it without having to worry about the twins getting their hands on it.

He took little time unwrapping the paper, and Olivia's eyebrows went up at the sight of what was definitely a sword handle.

When it was fully unwrapped, even she could recognize the sword for what it was, if only because of the usage of it in popular movies.

"When did you order a katana?"

"About a few months ago. I had it custom made by a professional swordsmith, and he only makes functioning blades," said Harry, admiring the three feet of deadly steel. Even the hilt was custom made to fit the imprints of Harry's hand size that he had sent along with the specifications. He took a leaf from one of the inside plants, and dropped it on the sharp edge of the blade...and the leaf was split neatly into two pieces. "Though he did charge me through the nose to make it."

"...You're going to keep it in your room, right?"

"During school hours, yes. After school I'll keep it with the knife Elliot gave me last year," said Harry.

So long as Olivia didn't hear anything about Harry drawing a gun or a blade at school, she wouldn't say anything. The sad fact was that with all the bad things she saw in this city, she felt safer knowing Harry always had a weapon on him that he knew how to actually use.

Harry carefully replaced the sword back into the beautifully crafted sheath, before putting it in his room. He had to get to school anyway.

He could learn how to use it with the Sparkies later.


	10. Chapter 10

_**Yes, I am seriously considering a Kathleen/Harry pairing. However the most they would do would be to go out on dates, nothing too serious just yet.**_

* * *

"So why a katana?" asked Julie, his trainer in swordplay.

"Mostly because I became fascinated with the forging process after reading this manga called _Katana_ , but also because it's not as heavy as a standard English broadsword. Katana are known for being light and sharp. And for someone like me, it's perfect since I'm generally speed oriented in a fight."

Well that and it was highly unlikely a Death Eater would recognize a katana for what it was. If they heard he had taken up the sword, they might expect something from Europe and not Asia. Not to mention it was easier getting a teacher for how to use a katana these days than it was for a broadsword. People wouldn't really laugh if they heard you practiced kenjutsu, thanks to the popularity of katana in pop culture these days.

Harry brought his sword in, but kept it sheathed. He wold need to practice with a wooden version and find his style before he even remotely tried to wield his new weapon.

Only an idiot took a new blade into battle without learning how to use it. Or someone really, really desperate.

For the next few weeks, Harry learned how to use a blade. He was just shy of his seventeenth birthday when it happened.

England finally caught up to him.

* * *

Harry was about to walk home from school, after apparating to the shop to drop off his basketball gear. He wanted to take a shower at home before the game tonight. He was about halfway down the block and about out of the magical section of New York when he felt someone hit him from behind, and the distinct sensation of a port key.

He woke up seeing a face he would have been glad to have never seen again.

Cornelius Fudge...and some sort of pink toad thing, Percy Weasley, someone who was likely an Unspeakable, and Lucius Malfoy.

Obviously Malfoy had bought his way out, because Harry had serious doubts that he had a change of heart, unless something happened to Draco and the twins never said anything about it.

Harry looked at each of them, before saying "You kidnapped me to deal with Voldemort or to hand me over, didn't you?"

Seeing the expressions on their faces, Harry sighed. He was so not cleaning up after these complete morons, let alone dealing with Molly Weasley or Dumbledore again. The last thing he wanted was to have Ginny pushed onto him like she was before.

After two years of therapy and enough damage that he had landed on the Sparky Radar, Harry had seen a lot of subtle manipulations that had him rethinking telling his 'friends' a damn thing.

Fortunately he had foreseen something like this happening, if only for the complete _lack_ of anything resembling common sense in Britian's magical population (they listened to people like Dumbledore and Fudge, enough said) so he had his American/British passport in the bag that they had helpfully ignored, if only because they couldn't find anything like a port key on it.

Or because of the strong notice-me-not charm Harry recast on it every morning.

Which why he was glad they hadn't had the presence of mind to do more than remove his wand. He wasn't bound or anything, and thanks to a nice piece of rune work that all Sparkies (whether official or undercover like him) received upon passing initiation, they couldn't put anything on him that would cause him to break a large number of oaths.

Things like slavery runes/spells, compulsion charms, Imperius (that one had left him sick and unable to eat more than soup for two days), and anything that would essentially make him the 'property' of another.

The only way they'd get him to do a damn thing was either through coercion, blackmail or force. And since they couldn't do a damn thing without having to deal with the entire New York Police Department (not to mention a rather worrying number of magical police) after their ass.

As it was, Harry was _seriously_ considering asking the Americans why they didn't just get a little unofficial payback on the Brits for all the crap they gave them during the American Revolution. Odds were they'd go for it, since unfortunately the British magical society still had a firm hold on the progression for most of the English speaking countries, barring the Asian side of the world and a good chunk of Africa.

If America decided to return the favor and took over Britain, the old families would have to wake up and smell the digital age.

Which was why he felt a profound satisfaction breaking Malfoy's nose, Fudge's legs, the face of that toad, and then kicking the pink toad in the stomach so hard she started to throw up...before pointing his spare wand at the Unspeakable while raising an eyebrow.

"Are we going to have a problem?"

"For the record, I told them it was a bad idea but they refused to listen. And may I say it was an honest pleasure seeing someone have the balls to kick their ass the muggle way," said a familiar voice.

"Lee?"

"It's Announcer. Thankfully the Boss let me take his spot so you'd at least have a familiar face to get you out of here."

Lee was, and always would be, the Twins co-conspirator. Which was why he had jumped at the chance to help Harry out.

He was aware of the consequences if he didn't.

Lee helped him put on the double of the Unspeakable outfit. It wouldn't hold up to close scrutiny, but it didn't need to since the majority of the Unspeakables (barring those with confirmed Death Eater ties not currently undercover) were on his side, especially since he cut all ties to Dumbledore.

"Where to now?" said Harry, from under his robe. He had not missed wearing these stupid things, especially since in America they didn't even _have_ them in their clothing shops except for tourists.

"Gringotts, then I'll have to leave you since I have no idea where the American consulate is. You do have your passport right?"

"Idiots didn't even bother to remove my bag," agreed Harry.

* * *

In an unfortunately stroke of luck, Molly Weasley happened to be near the clock when she saw the hand that had Harry's name on it clearly move to 'Ministry'. And being a diehard Dumbledore supporter, she immediately told him.

Which was why Harry found himself absconded once again, this time to Sirius' childhood home.

Thankfully he had mastered a charm most students learned to tone out unnecessary distractions like a roommate's music choice or the sound of partying.

It was a well practiced and favored charm among college students...and he found it worked out very well with ignoring Hermione's ranting, Mrs. Weasley's shrieking, and the unholy racket that was Sirius' mother.

It was equally simple to ignore Remus and Dumbledore's disapproving looks and the expectant ones on the Order's face.

Once he was reasonably certain the uproar had died down, he cleared his throat so he could speak.

"Right, first off why don't you all bugger off, because I am not going to clean up your bloody mess for you. I am not your mother and I certainly didn't create this mess that you've allowed to run rampant because you haven't the balls to deal with it yourself."

"Harry! That's no way to speak to the headmaster!"

Harry winced. Evidently Hermione had been taking lessons from Mrs. Weasley.

"He's not my mother, or even related to me, and he's certainly not my headmaster anymore. I left the death trap that is Hogwarts far behind and see no reason to go back. I have a home, a family, and a life back where I'm actually wanted and appreciated...and it would just take a single text for me to bring down a whole lot of trouble down on all of you."

Thanks to the advancement of technology...and the fact he owned a cell phone, it wouldn't take long for him to alert Olivia (and through her the Sparkies) that some idiot had grabbed him and illegally transported him from America back to England. And considering how well liked he was by the American police department and the Sparkies, it wouldn't be inconceivable that they would bring some of their better agents to do a lot of damage in order to get him back since he made it very clear he wanted nothing to do with England's mess.

He was very well connected, unlike before. This time he had the proper back up and he wasn't expected to shoulder all the work for once.

He got up and made it pretty obvious he was leaving and his finely-tuned instincts had him throw up a barrier between him and the rest of the Order.

Four of which had their wands out, including Mrs. Weasley...and Remus.

Seeing the glaze over the werewolf's eyes, Harry had the sneaking suspicion he was under something.

So he drew out his gun (which had Hermione gasp in recognition, as well as a very few other muggleborns or half bloods) cocked it, then muttered something under his breath, which was the activation phrase. Now that he was fully armed, his mind seemed to go into overdrive.

Most of these people were sheep, and some were true believers like Mrs. Weasley. And since he didn't want to give them more reason to try and harass him later (they were firm about their beliefs in the whole 'light versus dark' debate) that meant he would have to get creative in taking them out.

And he was so going to subject Remus to a through examination from the Sparkies to see if he was under anything.

Harry crouched down behind the barrier, dropped it...then started firing.

Most of the spells he used were relatively harmless, but would incapacitate someone in a duel. Things like the slug-spewing spell that Ron tried to use on Malfoy second year. Other spells had the vocal cords seize up, but since the magicals rarely knew anything about biology they wouldn't know what was wrong. And most didn't bother with learning how to cast silently.

For the muggleborns he went a different approach. The open threat of something they would recognize and the fact he clearly knew how to aim properly.

It was a good thing he had bought one off the street and hadn't told Olivia how he knew where to get it. He had made sure it hadn't been used in any crimes, so it was relatively fresh... however it wasn't registered. He often wondered how Olivia would take the fact he was a lifetime member of the NRA or that he had it delivered to his P.O. Box so he could read it later in the shop.

Leaving the house with yet even more profound satisfaction in his stomach, having hit Dumbledore with a plucking charm ridding him of that damnable beard (and every other hair on his body) and another that would inexplicably cause the magical core the undergo a full cycle, which was rather painful if you weren't under a curse or anything that would cause it to react badly.

Let it never be said Harry didn't know how to hold one _hell_ of a grudge.

He walked to the corner, then waited until he saw a pay phone, seeing as how he didn't know any numbers he could call with his cell.

Fortunately it didn't smell of urine, wasn't connected to any magical buildings, and had a helpful phone book. It took him three tries to find a cab that was still open after midnight.

"Where to gov'ner?"

"American Consulate, if you please. As much as I enjoy being back in my homeland I much prefer the women over there," said Harry, his British accent returning after being around it too long.

The cab driver snorted in agreement.

"I agree, but don't tell me wife back home that!"

Harry snorted.

* * *

It took two hours and Harry nearly fell asleep, but they made it to the consulate. Seeing the hours, Harry decided instead to head to the first hotel and went in under the name 'Elliot Stabler' before using the phone to call Olivia in New York. Odds were she'd be waiting for his call, and if not she's appreciate the fact he called her first.

Hearing her yawn, Harry grinned. He must have caught her at the office, because he was calling the precinct first so they could trace the call.

" _Benson."_

"Hey sis. Sorry if I worried you, I should be back in the States soon."

He could hear Olivia sit up pretty quick and all talk in the precinct stop cold. Then he heard the speaker.

" _Harry where are you?"_

"About three blocks away from the American Consulate. I told you the people back in England were absolute idiots with no common sense to speak of. They didn't even think to confiscate my passport or my driver's license," said Harry.

He didn't need to prove he was there illegally...he just had to get in touch with the American magicals and hope they'd get him a one-way ticket home. If not...well, he was sure they had plenty of body bags for any English stupid enough to annoy him.

" _How long are you going to be stuck in England?"_

"With any luck I should be home within the week. If not I'll be sure to call you and keep you posted. Tell the others they'll have to wait for their usual deliveries of baked goods."

Harry made sure that the tracking chip on his phone was active, and wrote up a quick text that he saved in the event the magicals tried anything. One quick text would tell Olivia he was in trouble and that he needed back up.

As it was, Harry found himself in the unenviable position of having to deal with the one thing everyone hated, especially cops.

A lawyer.

Fortunately, there were magical barristers that had offices in both worlds, so Harry could give them a lot of work that would yield quite a bit of profit for both parties.

In short Harry was going to sue the hell out of the magical communities and make their lives hell. He also had a restraining order issued for one Albus Dumbledore, Cornelius Fudge, Lucius Malfoy, Molly Weasley, and Hermione Granger. If they came within a hundred yards of him he'd have them arrested.

If they tried to kidnap him again, he'd be within his rights to knife the bastards.

As it was, Cragen ended up sending a familiar face when Harry found out the hard way that the British Ministry planned to make his escape as difficult as humanly possible.

He sent Elliot, who was had developed a familiar hatred for magical travel after being subjected to an international portkey, courtesy of the Sparkies. Harry could commiserate, considering he despised the normal kind.


End file.
